


carry me with you... i'll make it better, baby (don't make me beg to hold you close)

by namedawesome



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Kidnapping, Physical Abuse, Protective Chloe Decker, Set in Season 3, Sibling Abuse, There's a lot in here guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 41,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/namedawesome/pseuds/namedawesome
Summary: Some of Lucifer's brothers come to town and treat him like they used to when they were "children". Everyone gets worried, Lucifer gets hurt, and Chloe wants to punch his whole family in the face.or“Oh, man! Lucifer…” Ella started, causing Chloe to turn, she looked like she was annoyed with him until his face registered with her. “What happened?” Ella asked, her forehead creased in worry.Lucifer couldn’t look away from Chloe, “I’m sorry, darling, I really did try to get here on time…”“Lucifer, no, what… what happened to your face?” she asked, waving away his concern.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the most stressful fic ever............
> 
> enjoy, kiddos!!!

Lucifer was getting ready for the day when he heard the fluttering of wings. He almost thought it was Amenadiel but then he recalled that his brother had lost his wings during the whole debacle with their mother and Uriel. This meant that it was one or more of his siblings. Lucifer heaved a sigh; it was much too early in the morning for this… Which one of them would deign to visit him anyway? None of them liked him very much in the first place… He walked out into the main room and froze. Michael and Gabriel. The two brothers he never wanted to see again.

“Well, look at him now, Gabriel,” Michael chuckled. “Wearing human clothes and playing pretend!”

“It’s almost like old times, but with a fancy, human suit,” Gabriel elbowed his brother. 

Lucifer rolled his eyes, “I really don’t have time for either of you, so if you could just bugger off, I’ll be ever so grateful.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, brother,” Michael said, his expression grim. 

Lucifer sighed. This was so reminiscent of their childhood together that Lucifer was now resigned to whatever they were going to do to him (and they used to do a lot to him…). He just hoped it was quick because the Detective was going to be annoyed with him if he turned up late. Lucifer looked up at the sky, his father, not pleading just angry and resigned to his fate. He tried, in vain, he knew, to walk past his brothers.

Gabriel grabbed his bicep in a vice grip, and he knew he would have bruises there. “You’re not leaving yet, brother…” he said, low and threatening.

“Unhand me, Gabriel,” Lucifer growled. And he jerked his arm out of his brother’s grip. 

“Samael,” Michael began shaking his head, “you know that’s not how it goes with us.” 

Lucifer opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by a punch to the face. He turned his face back to his brothers, angry and about to fight back, when Michael hit him again. As he was trying to recover Gabriel came behind him and managed to hold his arms behind his back in a position that made him unable to call his wings into being, so he was stuck here, with them. Michael focused his rage on his face and abdomen, causing maximum damage, just like he used to when they were young. His brother beat him for what felt like a few moments and forever simultaneously. Lucifer knew it was only about ten minutes, and when they dropped him, he only stayed on the floor long enough for them to leave.

He dressed. He tried not to look at himself in the bathroom mirror and rushed through the rest of his morning routine so that he wouldn’t be too late meeting the Detective (she had texted him this morning with a crime scene location and he was supposed to get there as soon as he could. He had told her that he would be 30 minutes, but now if he didn’t hurry, he’d be very late). He’d caught sight of himself in the mirror behind the bar as he walked past it, so he’d known that there was blood all over his face and that it was still streaming from a cut on his brow and his lip. He rushed to the scene where the Detective had asked him to meet her. He sped, and he knew that the Detective would disapprove, but he couldn’t allow himself to be much later… He wiped at his face one last time as he pulled up and he rushed under the tape to meet his friends. 

Ella saw him first and she was staring at him and he could only guess at what he looked like to her. “Oh, man! Lucifer…” Ella started, causing Chloe to turn, she looked like she was annoyed with him until his face registered with her. “What happened?” Ella asked, her forehead creased in worry. 

Lucifer couldn’t look away from Chloe, “I’m sorry, darling, I really did try to get here on time…”

“Lucifer, no, what… what happened to your face?” she asked, waving away his concern.

“Just a bit of a disagreement, Detective, nothing to be concerned about,” he said, trying for a charming grin. 

“Dude! That doesn’t look like a disagreement, that looks like someone held you down while someone else beat you as hard as they could,” Ella told him. 

Lucifer scrambled to explain, not wanting them to really know but not wanting to lie to the Detective either. “Just a healthy spat between brothers, is all,” he said. He walked toward Chloe and held a hand out in front of her, trying to steer them back to work. He was about to ask about the case when Chloe interrupted him.

“Amenadiel did this to you?” Chloe asked, but it didn’t sound like a question, it sounded like he was angry. She reached her hand up to his face, and touched the cut along his brow lightly, causing him to flinch away from her, not much but enough for her to bite her lip and drop her hand.

“I have other brothers, you know,” he said, trying to distract them.

“So, which of your brothers did that to you?” Chloe asked crossing her arms and refusing to move. 

“Detective, really, there’s no need to-” he started but he was cut off.

“Which brothers, Lucifer,” Chloe demanded. 

“You’ve never met them,” Lucifer sighed. Chloe raised her brows like she was going to wait for him to answer. He sighed again and said with a grumble, “Michael and Gabriel…”

“Do all your brothers have names like that?” Dan asked with a frown as he walked up to them.

“Like what?” 

“Like biblical.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “What other sort of names would they have? They’re all angels,” he said and ignored Dan’s disbelief.

“But your brothers… they… They did that to you?” Chloe asked, chewing at her lip. 

“Yes,” he sighed, “just a brotherly spat, nothing serious, now can we please get to the case?”

Chloe sighed and turned away from him. He could tell she didn’t want to let it go, and for a moment he regretted not looking too closely at his face before he had arrived. Chloe went about describing the scene with Ella’s help when Dan sidled up to him. “So, how many brothers do you have? And why have we only met Amenadiel?” Dan asked

“More than I could possibly count,” Lucifer said, he hated talking about his family, and he wanted to stop talking about them now. 

“Big family?” Dan asked rhetorically, and without waiting for an answer, he nudged Lucifer in the ribs with his elbow, “I know what that’s like.”

Lucifer gasped as the other man’s elbow connected with his torso. He’d almost forgotten about the damage done to it, but this was what seemed to be a perfect reminder. The breath left his lungs and he had to try very hard to take in any air at all. He doubled over, and he knew he must have made some sort of sound because Ella and Chloe crowded him. Chloe placed a tentative hand on his back, and he gasped a painful breath. He vaguely registered Ella as she cursed at Dan in Spanish for hurting him. 

“Lucifer?” Chloe asked, and he managed to get himself upright. He nodded to her and took a deep breath, only to wince as it caught painfully in his chest. “Lucifer, are you okay?” Chloe asked, leading him away from Dan and Ella. 

“Fine,” he gasped. His breathing settled into a rhythm that was less painful, and he sighed in relief. “Michael sometimes forgets how fragile bones are,” he told her, and then froze. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud…

“He broke your ribs?” Chloe asked, and her face was creased with something, worry, probably. “And what was Gabriel doing while Michael was breaking your ribs?”

Lucifer paused. “Not breaking my ribs,” he decided to say. 

“Lucifer you need to go to the hospital,” Chloe said, “and then you can press charges against them, and then they would leave you alone?”

“I’ll heal in a few days, Detective, no need for any of that, and anything less than a direct command from my Father wouldn’t do much against them,” he forced out a chuckle. “It’s just brothers being what they are, darling.” She didn’t look convinced, so he continued. “They’ve had their fun! They won’t bother me again any time soon.”

He gestured for them to get back to the case, for Chloe to lead the way. He was mostly alright, there was an occasional moment when he had to stop and clutch at his ribs if he breathed to deep or turned too quick. He made it through the day (their case was easy, and he and Chloe had solved it in a matter of hours, a jealous ex-husband that had barely covered his tracks), and the next morning he went to his appointment with Linda. 

“Oh, G- man,” Linda said when he walked in. “What happened to your face?” 

“Michael and Gabriel happened,” he sighed. “I’m quite tired of people asking me that, you know.”

“Well, you look like-” she started

“I know,” he sighed. “The Detective wanted me to go to the hospital, but that was yesterday, and my broken ribs have already started healing so that would have been absolutely useless. She just would’ve worried.”

“Your ribs?” Linda asked. “Your brothers broke your ribs?” 

“Why is that so surprising to everyone? All of my brothers have always treated me this way; it’s normal brotherly behavior!” he scoffed.

“Well, it is normal for siblings to fight, but broken bones are usually accidental,” Linda told him. He frowned because he didn’t understand, and she made a face at him. “It’s considered a form of abu-”

“I haven’t been abused, Doctor!” he interrupted. It was normal behavior; he had lived with it until he was thrown from the heavens. “Just because it’s not normal for humans, doesn’t mean its irregular amongst celestials.”

“So, all of your siblings fought with each other until their bones were broken?” Linda asked, a brow raised.

Lucifer paused. The only other sibling of his that he knew had broken a bone was Azrael and he had put a stop to that immediately. “Well, Azrael has but I… I made them leave her alone… Broken bones aren’t funny, no matter how much your brothers think so.”

“And none of your other siblings treat any of the others like they treat you?” she asked. She sounded like she was trying to lead him to a conclusion, but he didn’t know quite what she wanted from him. 

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “They were just doing as Father did…”

“Your Father treated you like that?” she asked, seemingly shocked. 

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Lucifer, you… you’re…” She sighed deeply. “Parents, families, aren’t supposed to treat you like that. Not all as a group, or individually.” Lucifer just frowned at her. “Would Chloe treat Trixie like that?” she asked.

“Of course, she wouldn’t,” Lucifer said looking at Linda like she was insane. “The Detective loves her spawn. Besides, she never had siblings so she wouldn’t know, would she?”

“She had parents,” Linda countered. 

“How does that factor in?” he threw his hands up getting frustrated. 

Linda sighed, like she was annoyed. “Lucifer, if you looked up the word abuse in one of the books I have here, it would tell you exactly what I’m about to.” She glared at him until he raised his hands in surrender signaling that he wouldn’t interrupt. “You have been abused, Lucifer, you might not think so, but that is what happens with abuse victims sometimes; they don’t know that they’ve been abused until much later in life.”

Lucifer frowned at her, but he didn’t say a word. After a moment he looked down at his hands and when he looked up again, she couldn’t tell what was going on in his mind. “If you’ll excuse me, Doctor,” he said quietly, pensively, and then he left. Linda was too shocked to stop him.

Lucifer had wanted to go to the Detective, but he ended up in his penthouse at the piano. He was staring at the glass he had placed on the lid and only half registered when the elevator opened with a bright ‘ding’.

“Lucifer, you’ll never guess what just happened!” Amenadiel exclaimed, exuberant as he usually was when he was excited.

Lucifer took hold of the glass and threw the contents back, needing the alcohol to deal with his brother when he was like this. “You’ve gotten laid?” Lucifer asked, knowing that wasn’t the case. 

“Luci, no, Michael and Gabriel are here!” Amenadiel was so happy to see his brothers, Lucifer knew, but he couldn’t agree. So, he scoffed, knowing he’d be scolded for it and got up to pour himself another drink. He forgot what his face looked like, and was unprepared for his older brother’s reaction, “What happened to your face, Luci?” 

“Michael and Gabriel happened,” Lucifer ground out. “Just like old times.”

Amenadiel’s brow furrowed, “They said they hadn’t seen you… Are you telling me they’re lying?” Amenadiel crossed his arms, playing the part of disapproving brother perfectly.

Lucifer sighed, taking a healthy sip of his drink. “I suppose I am, brother…” he said quietly. 

Amenadiel barked out a short, forced laugh, “They’re of heaven, Luci, they wouldn’t lie! They’re not-”

“Not what!” Lucifer growled, rounding on the other man. “Not the Devil?” Lucifer rolled his eyes and walked across the room toward the balcony. “You know I don’t lie, Amenadiel, you’ve always known and yet when it comes to them, to any of our siblings, you always seem to forget!” He turned away from his brother completely. He wanted Amenadiel to go away, he wanted… Well, he wanted Chloe, but he always wanted Chloe…

“Luci,” Amenadiel tried with a sigh.

“Just go, Amenadiel,” Lucifer sighed back. “Go find Michael and Gabriel and see if they can get you your wings back.”

He listened as his brother left. He wanted to destroy the room around him, but he also wanted to… he wanted to see Chloe… 

He knew she was off today, and he sent her a quick text to make sure that he wouldn’t be bothering her. Usually he would just rush over, but he thought maybe she’d be with her Spawn and sometimes they would do things together after the little girl was finished with her urchin jail for the day. She texted him back telling him he could come over, and he immediately got into his corvette and headed her way. He didn’t know why he wanted to be with her, but he knew he did.

He breezed through the drive to her apartment and when he got there, he entered without knocking. “Hey, Lucifer,” Chloe said and before he could respond, Trixie rushed out of her room and cheered his name. She barreled into him hugging him around the waist and he grunted in pain. He knew Chloe had seen. “Monkey, no! I told you Lucifer was hurt, remember?” she scolded, rounding the couch.

“Oh no!” Trixie yelped scrambling away from him, surprising him too. Her eyes filled with tears, but they didn’t fall. “I’m sorry, Lucifer! I didn’t mean to! I forgot!”

“It’s alright, Spawn,” he said as his brow furrowed. Why would she be upset? He was rubbing at his ribs again but stopped when he noticed Chloe staring at him worriedly. 

The little girl led him to the couch and waited for him to sit down. He was shocked as she gingerly climbed into his lap. Chloe followed, telling the little girl to “be careful” and to “try not to hurt him, okay, monkey?” and he just watched as the little girl assured her mother that she wouldn’t. “Did you get hurt working with mommy?” Trixie asked.

“No,” he replied. When she asked how he did get hurt, he told her, “I have some very mean brothers.”

“I thought brothers were supposed to be fun?” she said with a frown. 

Lucifer sighed and looked at the Detective for help. She gave him none, just a worried look and a sigh. “My brothers aren’t,” he said, and he wasn’t sure why that bothered him. Perhaps it was what Linda had told him?

“Your brothers sound like bullies,” Trixie said, and then she sighed. “What if you told your parents? Would they stop them from being mean?”

The innocence of this little girl baffled him sometimes, but he was glad that she had such faith in her parents, they were both top-notch as far as parents went (though Daniel had some trouble when they’d first met), and Lucifer knew that much at least, had seen it in action before. He shook his head, “Father has always let them do whatever they wanted… and He was the one who… well…”

Trixie frowned, “The one who what?” 

He shook his head, but he saw Chloe’s jaw clench as she stared at the two of them. “Don’t you have coloring to do or something?”

The little girl gave him a gentle hug and an even more gentle kiss to the cheek. She told him that she hoped he felt better and then went back into her room, but she left the door open. Lucifer stared after her like she was a mystery he’d never understand.

There was a long silence between him and Chloe. He sighed and then he… He didn’t want to tell her what Linda had told him, but he wanted to talk about it with someone and he’d thought that perhaps Amenadiel would’ve listened but not now… not after he’d been visited by Michael and Gabriel. “Doctor Martin told me something today…” he started but he stalled there for a moment. He sighed. Chloe placed a hand on his forearm, and he stared at it for a moment. “She said I’d been abused, and I… I don’t know if it’s…” he trailed off with a sigh. 

“Lucifer,” Chloe started, and she was using the voice she sometimes used for the families of the victims in their cases, and Lucifer shook his head as he stared at her hand on his arm. Chloe sighed. “Lucifer, I know this is hard… but it’s okay. You have us. I’m not going to tell you what I think happened to you, because I don’t know. And you don’t have to talk about it,” she said, her voice was still soft, but that was just how she spoke to him sometimes when they were alone. “But you can talk about it with me if you want to…”

He swallowed against the knot in his throat, he wanted to tell her, wanted her to know about what his family used to do to him, but try as he might, he couldn’t. He huffed out a frustrated breath, and managed to say, “Thank you, darling…” And then he picked up the hand she’d placed on his arm and started gently playing with her fingers. He couldn’t see the expression on her face, but he felt her move closer to him on the couch. “And I… I apologize for talking about it with the spawn… I-”

“No, Lucifer, it’s okay,” Chloe told him, batting at one of his fingers with her thumb. “Sometimes children are easier to talk to, and she’s tough.”

Lucifer nodded but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her. They sat like that for the longest time, him tracing and playing with her fingers, her occasionally, playfully trying to trap his fingers with hers. He felt at peace with her. Eventually, they had to get up; the child was hungry, and Chloe was supposed to be cooking dinner but instead she had sat with him. He insisted on either ordering something or cooking for them. Trixie was excited and said she wanted to help him cook, and asked if he could make macaroni and cheese, to which he replied, “With my eyes closed, you urchin.” So, dinner was decided, and Chloe was overruled on the vegetables front. 

Lucifer stayed until it was the spawn’s bedtime, he left after she gave him a gentle hug and told him that she wished his brothers weren’t mean. She also handed him a piece of folded paper, and he hadn’t looked at it yet. Chloe gave him a smile as he was leaving, and he could tell she didn’t want him to leave, but he felt like he needed to. They were… they were a family and he was… he was just himself. None of his family apart from Azrael had ever treated him like they cared, but Chloe and her daughter did. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he knew he wanted it… And how much had he lost in his lifetime from wanting? His home, what he thought was his family, and he really didn’t want to lose this, lose them… So, he went home to his empty penthouse, and hoped that someday he would stop wanting.

He let himself relax when he got home. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, he wanted to be with the Detective, but he wasn’t sure it was possible. Would she want him too? He didn’t think anyone would. If his own family treated him like they didn’t want him, then why would anyone else want him?

By the next morning he was moving easier, his ribs were healing faster, and he was glad that he could finally breathe a little deeper. He wasn’t glad for the sight that greeted him when he woke up. He’d sat up, and the first thing he saw was Michael and Gabriel sitting on his couch, waiting for him. “Bloody Hell,” he grumbled and as he got up, he tried ignoring them but when one of his glass tumblers flew by his head he froze. “Was that really necessary?” he asked annoyed and angry, turning to face them.

“Well, you told Amenadiel that we were here the other day,” Michael said, and he nudged Gabriel. 

Gabriel smirked, “We couldn’t let that fly brother… He asked us about your face. Did you really have to tell him?”

Lucifer stared at him; they knew he never lied… He _had_ never lied, not even to Mother and Father when they’d all been treating him badly… Not that his Father or Mother had really cared, his Mother had pretended, of course, but… Well, this wouldn’t be any different from those times, would it? He’d told Mother and Father and then they’d just beaten him again and worse. He closed his eyes and just stood there waiting. He hoped that if he didn’t say anything it would be over much faster. 

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself, Sammy?” Michael asked. He came closer to Lucifer, as if he were stalking around him. 

“If Amenadiel said that I told him, it must be true,” Lucifer sighed, knowing he was giving his brothers what they wanted. “You know I never lie…”

Michael threw his head back and laughed. Behind him, Gabriel moved closer and Lucifer braced himself for the attack. He didn’t know which one would attack him first and he knew he would fight back, that’s how it usually went. “But you’re the Devil, brother. No one would believe you… Not even Amenadiel,” Michael smirked at him. 

Lucifer took his eyes off of Gabriel for only a moment and that was his downfall. Gabriel flew at him and barreled him over. Lucifer ended up on the floor with Gabriel’s knee digging into his back. He brought his wings into play. He roared in pain as Michael grabbed his wing and dislocated it at the elbow. He flapped wildly with his other wing and he could tell by his brothers’ frustrated cries of pain that he was hitting them with the sharp primaries. He fought as hard against Gabriel as he could to get up. He had almost achieved it, when he felt Michael grab hold of his remaining wing. 

“Michael, no,” Lucifer panted. “No, don’t…” But his brother didn’t listen. He dislocated that one too and Lucifer roared in pain once more. He knew better than to beg or resist at this point, so when Michael demanded that he put his wings away, he did it, but only after Gabriel dug his knee into his back harder (it had hurt, putting his wings away, he’d forgotten what it was like to have them injured and to use them). 

“We’re going to have to reteach you, brother…” Gabriel laughed. “You seem to have forgotten your place…”

Lucifer heard the sound of a sword or knife being unsheathed and stopped his struggling. He started breathing faster because he knew what was going to happen… it had been happening ever since he was an adolescent. Michael had a long sword from heaven, had had it since he was created, and he would use it on him when he’d done something that his brother considered ‘foolish’. “I think he remembers,” Michael laughed. “Look at how stiff he’s gone, Gabe!”

The two laughed at him and he thought for a moment that the fact he remembered (and he could remember every moment of pain they put him through, but this was always the worst) would always be a given, considering his memory. The knife was sharp, and it burned like hellfire when Michael pulled it away from him. “I don’t think you hurt him, Mike, you should dig deeper…” Gabriel said. Lucifer gave up. He couldn’t fight the two of them, not with the way Gabriel had him, not without his wings. 

“Too bad we can’t tie him up like we used to,” Michael sighed. Lucifer hissed in pain as Michael dug the blade into him once more. Lucifer stopped listening to his brothers talk to each other like they weren’t torturing him. He knew torture was serious, he’d never liked torturing the souls in hell, that was something Maze had enjoyed. And yes, he did enjoy punishing them, getting justice, but… torture… it wasn’t in his nature. So, he let them do whatever they wanted. He felt every cut they made to his back, his sides, and when he felt like he was breathing pain out of every single one of his pores, they stopped. 

He stayed on the floor until he heard them leave, and then he stayed there for a little longer. He could feel the cuts and lacerations on his back slowly leaking blood, and he called his wings back onto this plane. It hurt more than he thought it would and he realized that it was because Michael had slashed his skin over and over again right where his wings connected with his back. Every time he moved his wings, even minutely, excruciating pain rippled through him. 

He managed to stand (almost slipping in some of the blood that surrounded him) and grabbed his phone, ignoring the bloody fingerprints he left on the screen. It rang a few times, then his brother answered. “’Menadiel… I need your help, brother…” Lucifer trailed off weakly. 

“Luci? What’s wrong, where are you?” Amenadiel asked, confused.

“Penthouse,” Lucifer gasped, wincing as he accidentally moved his wings. “My wings, brother…”

Amenadiel promised to be there soon and Lucifer tried to keep track of the minutes, but all he could do was breathe. When Amenadiel arrived, he gasped, and Lucifer’s eyes snapped open and his wings twitched like they were unconsciously trying to defend him (and he had almost cried out at how much it had hurt, but that would be showing weakness). “Lucifer…” Amenadiel whispered in horror. 

“Just pop them back into place,” Lucifer growled through the pain. 

“What happened?” Amenadiel asked. He grabbed one and without warning popped it into place with ease (he used to have to do it for the fledglings when they were learning to fly and were too adventurous, he’d done it for Lucifer more than any of his other siblings…). 

“Michael and Gabriel happened,” Lucifer panted, the pain becoming unbearable as Amenadiel’s hand slipped. “How do you think any of this happened to me?” He shook his head. He should’ve known that Amenadiel wouldn’t understand. 

Amenadiel sighed. “What did you do to them, Luci?”

“Me?” Lucifer said, incredulous. “What did I do?”

“I just don’t see Gabriel or Michael doing something like this without a reason, Lucifer,” Amenadiel told him. He popped Lucifer’s other wing back into place and sighed. “Really, Lucifer, I just don’t understand what you could do to set them off like this…” He shook his head and then looked up. “Do you need help with anything else? Those cuts?”

Lucifer was staring at Amenadiel like he couldn’t believe what his brother was saying. He couldn’t remember doing anything wrong, and he could remember everything he’d ever done, ever gone through… “No, thank you,” Lucifer told him absentmindedly. Maybe he _had_ done something to deserve what his brothers were doing to him… perhaps he would eventually figure out what he’d done to provoke his brothers’ attack. 

Lucifer went through his morning routine as he usually would as soon as Amenadiel left. He was lost in thought for most of it, only popping back into the present when he moved his shoulders the wrong way or twisted his body too quickly. He should have asked Amenadiel to stay and help him bandage his back, and he couldn’t ask anyone else. He was just glad that all of his shirts were dress shirts, and he wouldn’t have to stretch like he used to with the tunic they’d had to wear in the Silver City. Lucifer checked the clock; he was almost late for meeting the Detective at the station. Rushing through getting dressed, he made sure his hair and everything else was perfect before leaving. He left the puddle of blood to be cleaned later, and despite going ten over, he was still a minute later than he’d meant to be. 

“Oh, hey, Lucifer,” Chloe started when he appeared in front of her.

He didn’t let her finish. “Terribly sorry about being late, darling,” he sighed. He pulled at his sleeves like he was unsettled, uncomfortable. He hoped she wouldn’t be mad at him; Michael and Gabriel and Father had always punished him for less.

“Lucifer, it was only by a minute,” she said checking her phone for the time. She sounded confused.

“Yes,” he said, brow furrowing. “Right…”

Chloe placed a hand on his forearm lightly and frowned when he flinched. It was barely there, and only noticeable if one had been paying attention. Apparently, the Detective had been paying attention. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Are you brother’s bothering you?”

“Not right now, no,” he said, pulling his arm away from her. He looked down and then steeled himself, “We had a case, you said?” She had mentioned that they might the day before and he was ready for the focus to be shifted from him to something else. 

Chloe sighed, and the furrow in her brow never wavered as she told him, yes, they did have a case and that they’d better get going. “Ella and Dan are already there, I was about to text you the address and head out, but you can ride with me instead,” she gathered her badge and gun and he followed her to the cruiser. 

He couldn’t get comfortable with his back against the seat so he forced himself to sit still, like he used to when his father called a meeting to talk about the humans he was creating (they always lasted hours and if he was caught fidgeting he would be punished by his father and then his brother would come after him again and that was never fun). He must have been too stiff, to quiet, because Chloe softly touched his arm. He looked at her with a confused head tilt when she just stared at him. “You okay?” Chloe asked after a moment of staring at him. 

“’Course,” he told her quietly. 

“You sure? You’re really quiet,” she said, and her hand was still on his arm and he had to stop himself from grabbing it with his and tracing her fingers with his. He nodded again, because if he opened his mouth to talk in this moment, he’d tell her what his brothers had done and that was… that wouldn’t go down well at all. 

“What’s this case about then?” he asked. “Another jilted ex?”

Chloe sighed, and he hated that the furrow in her brow was permanent. Maybe it was because of him… Something he’d done… Maybe Amenadiel _was_ right and he was doing something deserving of punishment, not only by his brothers, but everyone else in his life as well… Chloe interrupted his thoughts, “Jason Smitherson, 20, body found in an alley. Ella and Dan will probably have more for us.” 

Lucifer nodded. “Why is it always an alleyway? Could be anywhere else, couldn’t it?” He smirked. “A strip club, for example?”

Chloe huffed out a laugh, “If we ever have to go to a strip club for a crime scene, I’m not gonna call you! You’d never focus long enough!”

“Darling, if you want my focus on you then just show off a bit more leg,” he smirked, but sucked in a pained breath when she hit him in the shoulder, jarring some of his many lacerations.

He noted that she was frowning at him again and he offered her a small genuine smile. There was another moment of silence. “How are your ribs feeling?” she asked. She was biting her lip and Lucifer wanted her to stop worrying. 

“Practically healed, Detective,” he told her with a wink. 

They pulled up at their destination and Lucifer tried to hide the pain on his face as he got out, but Chloe had been watching him much too closely. “Still hurting?” she asked placing a gentle hand at his ribs and stroking the material of his shirt with her thumb. He was still hurting from this morning’s… session, but he didn’t have to tell her that, so he just nodded. She was frowning again, and he really didn’t want her to frown any more but he didn’t know how to stop it (he didn’t know that all he had to do was tell her what was wrong and that she’d take care of him, but how could he know that when all he’d ever been given was punishment?). 

Ella saw him and perked up, “You feeling better, bud?” She came at him like she was going to hug him, and he jerked away from her almost violently. “Lucifer?” she asked. She’d stopped short of hugging him and he relaxed minutely. 

“Hello, Miss Lopez,” he said, and he cleared his throat before motioning to the body behind her. “Do you know how little Jason popped off then?” 

Chloe was staring at him again, the furrow in her brow deeper than it had been. “What have you guys found?” Chloe asked. 

Ella shook herself out of staring at him worriedly and started talking about bullets and blood loss and causes of death, but Lucifer was much too busy looking at whatever was half-written in blood beside the dead body. He was turning his head to try and make it out, when he felt the air displacing behind him. Faster than he or anyone else could comprehend, he spun around, caught whoever it was behind him by the scruff of the neck and was growling lightly. He didn’t even comprehend it was Daniel until Chloe placed a hand on his arm that had one of Daniel’s hands pinned to his back. 

“Lucifer, it’s just Dan,” Chloe told him, and she was rubbing at his arm as she spoke. “It’s okay it’s just Dan…”

Lucifer swallowed audibly and slowly released his hold on the man. “Terribly sorry, Daniel…” he said softly, and he couldn’t make himself look at any of them. 

“It’s okay, man,” Daniel said, “sorry for sneaking up on you…”

“No, I… It’s my fault, Daniel, I truly am sorry,” he looked up at the other man, for a moment and looked down again. He’d messed up, like he had with the Detective earlier and he was… Well… he hadn’t meant to. 

“Seriously, it’s fine,” Daniel said rubbing the back of his neck. “Remind me never to sneak up on you again, though!” He tapped Lucifer on the shoulder with his little notebook and started talking to Chloe about the witness that had found the body, but she didn’t look like she was listening. 

“Dan, can you… can you get with Ella and compare notes? I’m just… I’m gonna talk to Lucifer for a second,” Chloe said still frowning and still staring at him. As soon as Dan walked off, Chloe crowded him. This was the moment she yelled at him for being so unlike himself, he just knew it. He braced himself. “Lucifer,” she started quietly, “can you look at me please?” Her voice was nice and gentle, and he wanted to believe that she was going to be like that as well… He met her eyes with his and she offered him a small smile. “Did your brothers visit you again?” she asked. 

He looked away from her. He didn’t want to tell her the truth, and he didn’t want to lie to her… “It’s fine, Detective,” he said quietly. 

Chloe sighed at him, and he braced himself for her attack, whether it’s physical or verbal, he braced himself. Chloe placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, and he flinched. “Lucifer… you know I’d never hurt you, right?” she asked him.

“I… Yes, I know…” he sighed, but he couldn’t make himself look at her. He leaned into the hand she put on his shoulder.

“I just… I want you to know you can trust me, that you can tell me anything… Even if someone is hurting you,” Chloe said. 

Lucifer sighed and nodded again. He still wouldn’t look at her and he couldn’t bring himself to speak. 

“After the last time,” Chloe started, and she paused before she continued, “did your brothers hurt you again?”

“Detective, please,” he sighed out a frustrated breath. “Can we please just… focus on the case?” He met her eyes and she must have seen something in his eyes because she pulled away from him. 

“Okay,” she sighed, “but I just… you can talk to me if you need to, okay?” 

“Okay,” he said softly. 

“Come on, we need to figure out who would want to kill Jason,” Chloe sighed. 

The longer they stayed on the scene, the less they knew about Jason and the more questions they had. Chloe and Lucifer headed off to Jason’s parent’s house, where they found a worried mother and father. Telling them the news had been tough for the Detective, and he stayed mostly quiet until the victim’s mother had said something about a huge fight that Jason had gotten into with his brothers. Lucifer had scoffed and looked up at his Father. Just his luck to get a case involving brothers with problems.

They climbed into the car with Jason’s brothers’ information. Chloe wanted to do some research on them before they found went to see them, so she’d called Dan and asked if he and Ella could do some research while she and Lucifer went to find them. She hung up with Dan and Lucifer was sitting stiffly again so his back wouldn’t rub against the seat too much. He felt her eyes on him again and sighed, “I’m fine, Detective.”

“No, yeah, I know, you keep saying that,” Chloe said with a sigh of her own.

“Then why do you keep asking?” Lucifer was genuinely curious.

Chloe turned to him for a moment, about to snap at him, it seemed, but then she deflated (she realized from the look on his face that he really didn’t know why she kept asking, and that broke her heart a little more than it already had been from watching him flinch away from all the people that cared about him throughout the day). “I just… I don’t like the thought of anyone hurting you, and if I’m…” she trailed off for a long moment and Lucifer was about to ask her to continue, when she shook her head and her voice became raw and thick. “I don’t want to be right about how I think your brothers are still hurting you, and I… I just keep worrying that I’m right…”

“Detective…” was all he managed. He was speechless. She… she really was worried about him, about what was happening to him and he… He didn’t know how she could. He was just… he was the devil and she cared about him and he was just… he didn’t understand. No one in his life had ever cared that he was hurt. He didn’t know if he could believe it (he wanted to, he wanted her to care about him and what was happening to him, but what had he ever achieved from wanting? A fall of epic proportions and a monstrous appearance…). 

“It just doesn’t seem like you’re okay,” Chloe sighed. “And your brothers beat you so badly, your ribs were broken, Lucifer…”

“They’re just doing what they’ve always done…” Lucifer told her, slowly and softly, like he was trying to understand what was wrong with that. 

“Lucifer, just because that’s how it’s always been, doesn’t mean that that’s how it should have been, or should be now,” she sighed. “I know you might not know that or believe it, but… Lucifer, I just… Your family is supposed to love you…” 

Lucifer’s brow furrowed. “That… that hasn’t been my experience,” he told her, almost soft enough for her not to hear but she must have caught it. 

“I know it hasn’t, Lucifer,” Chloe sighed, and she left it at that. 

He frowned at that. He didn’t… What could he do? What could he…? He could tell her, but then… He just wanted to know what he was doing wrong, why his brothers treated him the way they did… He just wanted to understand… They didn’t talk for the rest of the ride. 

When they got there, Jason’s brother Brendon opened the door. He lived there with his other brother John. They asked to speak to the both of them together, but they were told John was at work. Brendon was devastated when Chloe told him about his brother, and Lucifer was confused. Brothers weren’t supposed to care like this one did… He watched as the other man started to cry. He didn’t understand how this man could be so upset for his brother.

“How did you and your brothers get along?” Chloe asked.

Lucifer was looking around the room, picking up random bits and bobs, but when Chloe asked her question, he turned to pay attention. “I love my brothers!” Brendon cried. “They’re my best friends!” 

Lucifer’s frown deepened. That couldn’t be right…

“Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Jason?” Chloe asked. 

“No…” the man sighed, but then he made a face, “well, he was… he was getting into the wrong crowd at school, you know? Like… you would think a college kid would know better, but… but, I guess not…” Tears were running down Brendon’s face. 

“I know these questions are hard, but is John as close to Jason as you are?” Chloe asked. 

“Not as much, but that’s because he’s a little older, you know?” Brendon sniffled. “Like, they were fine, but they never meshed well. Johnny’s a little too high strung for… for Jay…”

Lucifer frowned as Chloe thanked the man. She grabbed Lucifer by the arm as they left like she was trying to keep him with her. She walked as close to him as she possibly could, and he ended up shifting his arm to place his hand at the small of her back. “You alright, darling?” he asked. “You seem a bit unsettled…”

“Fine, but…” she trailed off shaking her head, and then she seemed to steel herself. “I just thought Brendon would know a little more… He said he was his brother’s best friend…”

“I find that hard to believe,” Lucifer said. “But perhaps there’s… Well, perhaps I just don’t…”

“They have a different relationship than you and your brothers,” Chloe supplied. 

He opened her car door for her and quickly got in on the passenger side. He winced as he accidentally twisted wrong and he saw her looking at him worriedly. He placed a hand on her arm to soothe her, to let her know he was fine.

“Your ribs?” she asked. 

“No, darling,” he sighed. He watched as Chloe visibly held herself back from asking what was hurting him. He wanted to tell her something, offer her something to show that he really did trust her… He sighed again. “It’s my back,” he said. He heard her shift to look at him, but he kept his eyes forward, knowing he’d tell her more if he looked at her. “Don’t… Don’t ask, I- I can’t… please…” he almost whispered.

He watched Chloe nod out of the corner of his eye. “Okay…” she said softly. She brought her hand up to rest on his arm and this time he didn’t flinch, but he did cover her hand with his. She squeezed his arm and then with a sigh she pulled away. She started driving and he still couldn’t look at her (because he would tell her everything, how many lacerations he had on his back and how deep they were, how much they hurt and how Michael had done it to him and how Gabriel had helped)…

John Smitherson worked as a mechanic, and even though he wasn’t as close to his brother as Brendon was, he was still absolutely devastated. He visibly held back his tears and Lucifer was, once again, thrown. He just didn’t understand how these brothers cared about each other. Family, in his experience, was not kind and they definitely didn’t care. But then… perhaps his perception of family was skewed, but that… that couldn’t be true, could it? His family was the original family, the start of everything… Every bit of family values was based on him and his family and yet… and yet… In all his experience he’d rarely seen a family that functioned like his had, but when he did… when he did, he’d always… Well, it wasn’t fair to treat a child, to treat anyone, like he’d been treated, was it? So, of course, he’d scared them so badly they could barely talk and had told the one they were… that was having a hard time of it, that they were okay and none of their family would ever hurt them again (and that was usually when Amenadiel would find him and force him back to hell, citing a directive from their Father, and that hadn’t seemed suspicious until he was thinking about it now…).

Chloe went through her battery of questions and got the same information she’d gotten from Brendon and the answers still had Lucifer confused. He really didn’t understand but… but he supposed that not everyone had experienced life the way he had. Not that he understood that, but…

Chloe had to call him to her when it was time for them to leave. He hurried out behind her and his hand found the small of her back once again. He could feel the hesitation pouring off of her and she kept looking at his face as he led her through the shop, helping her avoid toolboxes and stray parts. “Like what you see, Detective?” he asked, small smirk in place.

She huffed out an amused breath and shook her head at him. “I know you don’t want me to ask questions…” she trailed off and he looked away from her. “What happened to your back?” she whispered this to him, and he could feel her fiddling with the end of his open suit jacket. He shook his head at her and refused to look at her when she pulled lightly at the fabric in her hand. She sighed, but she didn’t ask him anything else as she climbed into the car. Lucifer took a moment to follow her lead and when he was seated, she drove off. 

They went to the precinct, where they met Ella and Dan. They discussed all the information they’d gathered and decided that they would go to Jason’s school to try and locate his friends as soon as they were able. Ella and Dan kept throwing glances at Lucifer as they reported their findings. Chloe cleared her throat whenever their attention strayed. She assigned Ella the job of finding out who all the contacts on Jason’s phone were and who he talked to the most often. She asked Dan to check both of his brother’s alibi’s, and then she asked Lucifer to go and please get her an iced coffee because she was tired, and when she tried to hand him ten dollars, he just rolled his eyes at her with a smirk and walked out of the precinct. 

As soon as he was gone, she pulled Dan into the lab with her. “Ella, Dan… okay,” Chloe sighed. Chloe took a deep breath, “Stop looking at Lucifer like he’s… Like he’s not our Lucifer.”

“Chloe, he’s never, and I mean _never ever_ flinched away from a hug like that!” Ella practically wailed. “I mean, sure, he’ll squirm, but that’s… he’s always done that…”

“And, he barely ever registers movement behind him,” Dan shook his head. “And if he does, he doesn’t react like that. Something’s up with him, Chlo’.”

“Yeah, there is,” Chloe agreed, surprising her friends. “But right now, he needs us to treat him how we normally would, but with less touching and less coming up behind him and slapping him on the back, okay?”

“But, Decker, he needs to know we love him!” Ella pouted. 

Chloe looked up at the ceiling, praying for patience, and couldn’t believe she was saying this to anyone other than a three-year-old Trixie, “Use your words, Ella…” Ella was still pouting but she nodded. “Thank you,” Chloe said, and then she went back out to her desk to go over the evidence they’d gathered and wait for Lucifer. 

He popped up a few minutes later handing her the iced coffee she asked for and sipping on one of his own which made her smile. There were so many things she never expected to see him doing and drinking iced coffee was one of those things, but he did it with confidence. She thanked him and he preened a little bit (she didn’t mind, just smiled at him fondly because she was glad that he was proud of himself even if it was for something as simple as getting coffee for her). 

Dan came back into the room, accidentally letting the lab door hit the shelf beside it, and Lucifer flinched as it happened, but didn’t turn around. Chloe ignored it (her first instinct was to tell Lucifer that it was okay, that it was just a noise, that it couldn’t hurt him like his brothers probably did, but she wrestled that reaction down to a stern glance in Dan’s direction), and Dan apologized lightly for making so much noise (it hadn’t been very loud and no one else in the bull pen had been bothered by it). Chloe motioned Lucifer to come over to her and go over what they knew together. They decided that they needed to go talk to Jason’s friends as soon as possible (and Chloe was quite happy to note that they still had a little less than half a workday left, but certainly enough time to find their victim’s friends). 

As soon as she grabbed her keys and motioned for Lucifer to follow her, Pierce walked up to them and asked where they were with their case. “We were just about to head out and talk to our vic’s friends from school,” Chloe explained.

“Usually it’s a loved one that would do something like that,” Pierce noted, looking her up and down. “You sure you didn’t overlook something?” (Lucifer knew that look. It was supposed to intimidate her and check her out at the same time, he’d seen it so many times at Lux that he’d usually have the brute removed before they caused any further trouble with anyone.)

“The Detective is very thorough,” Lucifer said (low and defensive and growling), before she could even open her mouth. That was all he said, and he’d stepped ever so slightly in front of her, somehow towering over the man even though she’d noticed that they were the same height. Pierce frowned and turned away, stalking back to his office, and Chloe rolled her eyes. Men.


	2. Chapter 2

She let Dan know where they were going, that she’d have more information for them all to sift through when she got back, and maybe even more evidence for Ella if they could get their hands on it. She and Lucifer were back in the car, the atmosphere a little more relaxed than before.

Lucifer’s phone rang and he answered it with a quick look at the screen. “Amenadiel, I’m with the Detective right now, I don’t really have time to talk,” he sighed. “Blood? Where are you?” Lucifer asked after a moment. “At my… Yes, Amenadiel, I know it’s there! If you’d paid attention this morning, you’d have noticed it as well…” He rolled his eyes. “Who else would it belong to? Honestly, brother…” Another sigh, “I _am_ with the Detective, so I don’t have time to-” he was cut off and sighed again. “No, I wouldn’t like to speak with either of them, I’d quite like them to go home actually.” Another pause, this one longer. “No. Goodbye, brother.” And Lucifer hung up with a scoff.

“Everything okay?” Chloe asked. 

“Oh, just wonderful,” Lucifer scoffed. “Amenadiel wants me to try to ‘fix my relationship’ with Michael and Gabriel which is absolutely insane. They don’t… they aren’t…” Lucifer sighed. “I don’t…”

“They don’t deserve you,” Chloe told him, suddenly angry on his behalf. “None of them, and I… The next time I see Amenadiel, I’m going to punch him in the face.”

“Detective…” he said, sounding like he was in awe. 

“Don’t even get me started on what I would do to those monsters you call brothers!” she grit out. She was angry, so much so that she was clenching her hands around the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles ached. 

“Amenadiel told me something this morning…” he started. She glanced over at him, watching as his brow furrowed. “He asked me what I’d done to… to make them… and… what if I have done something? What if I deser-”

“No!” Chloe said, her voice harsh and raw with anger. “You _do not_ deserve whatever they’re doing to you, and Amenadiel should have never- _never_\- said that to you!” She took a moment to breathe, trying to calm herself (it wasn’t working), “You don’t- You haven’t-” She sighed heavily. “Your brothers… they are the ones that deserve to be… You’re good, Lucifer… you don’t…” Chloe’s eyes filled with tears, and she did her best to stop them from falling. “No one should ever hurt you the way that they are, that they probably have been since you were… _No one_, Lucifer! Not your father! Not your brothers! No one!”

She glanced over at him and saw him, his jaw slack. She let him have his moment, and it broke her heart a little as he said, “Detective…” His voice was small and awed, and she just… she wanted him to know that he was special to her like he’d once told her she was to him. 

“You haven’t seen your brothers in a long time, right?” Chloe asked. She watched him nod at her out of the corner of her eye. “Then you couldn’t have done anything to make them treat you… however it is they’re treating you…” 

They were silent for a long time after that, her, driving, and Lucifer staring at her like she was the first one to tell him that, that he didn’t deserve to be treated like he had been (and the thought that it was how he had always been treated was… it made her angry). She thought about the fact that Amenadiel had mentioned blood to Lucifer and how Lucifer was aware that it was there, wherever there was, and it filled her with dread. He’d told her earlier that it was his back that was bothering him, and that along with the mention of blood… Well, she was a detective and she could put two and two together… Her mind filled with conjured images, his father carving chunks out of a younger Lucifer’s back and now, his brothers doing the same thing to him… Her Lucifer being held down, screaming in pain, wanting nothing more than for it to stop, but she expected that there was no mercy from any of them (and her tears were streaming down her face now, but she didn’t care about that, she cared about Lucifer and she wanted him to stop being hurt). She wanted to hold him to her and never ever let go. She wanted to keep him safe, and sure, he was strong… he was Lucifer after all, but… She just wanted to protect him…

She parked in the visitor’s section of the parking lot for Los Angeles City College and took a moment to wipe her eyes. Lucifer handed her his handkerchief and it looked like he wanted to wipe her face for her, but he restrained himself. She smiled at him and wiped her face, sniffling just a little. “Thanks…” she told him softly. He just gave her a small smile in return and reached out to touch her hand as a silent response.

They found out from the office that Jason’s dorm room wasn’t far, and they were given a copy of his class schedule and the names of his professors. They made their way to the dorms, and when they got there, Jason’s roommate was studying from a large book. They introduced themselves and the boy was extremely worried about Jason. 

“We used to be tight, you know?” the boy shrugged. “But then he… well, he was… these guys were dealing drugs… I don’t know any of their names but… he met one of them in his Spanish class about a month and a half ago and he hasn’t really been around since then…” The boy’s eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe he’s dead…”

Chloe and Lucifer gathered anything that they could use as evidence, his computer for Ella and a few other things that looked like they might contain clues. Lucifer, of course, had found a few baggies of drugs and Chloe had to take them from him before he could taste them. Lucifer pouted and as they walked out of the room, he told her that he could tell her what the drugs were much faster than Ella’s little machines could and she had to take a moment because it didn’t shock her that he could but she really wanted him to be safe and not on drugs when his brothers were treating him… with how she suspected his brothers were treating him.

“I’m sure you could, Lucifer,” she sighed, “but we actually need it on file what these are and if they match any of the known producers.”

Lucifer sighed out a, “Very well, Detective,” and she was glad that he dropped it. 

(They’d gone to talk to his professors as well, but nothing they’d told them was very useful mostly because Jason hadn’t really stood out, but also because the professors really hadn’t paid attention to very many of the students.)

Once they were in the car and Chloe had called Ella to let her know that they had some stuff for her to test, Lucifer was staring out the window as she hung up the phone. He looked like he was in deep thought and Chloe sighed and before she could think about it, she asked him, “Lucifer do you want to come over tonight? It’s just me and Trix and I was thinking about ordering from that Chinese restaurant you like…”

Lucifer turned to her surprised. “Thank you for the offer, Detective, but I’m afraid if I don’t meet Amenadiel at the penthouse like he’s told me I better then he’s likely to track me down…” He sighed and she tried not to be disappointed. “Wouldn’t want him to tell my brothers about you and the urchin, would I?” His tone was light and playful, but Chloe heard the undercurrent, the worry that made him even think it in the first place. 

Chloe gave him a sad smile and started driving to the precinct. It wasn’t long before they got there, and Lucifer rushed off with a bright, fake smile and a promise to see her the next day “bright and early! Shall I bring you a coffee, darling? Your usual?” When she nodded at him and told him that yes, she would like her coffee and then she thanked him gently by raising up on her toes and kissing him on the cheek. She watched as he blinked down at her in surprise and then his smile turned softer (and she gave him one back because she could and he deserved it and she wanted to tell him that she loved him, that she could protect him from his brothers, but… he was trying to protect her from them… she just wanted him to be okay…).

Lucifer got in his car and drove away from the Detective (unwillingly, but still, he drove away from her and it had been so very tempting before she had even mentioned the Chinese) and to his home where he knew his brother was waiting. He suspected that Amenadiel also had Michael and Gabriel with him and what he was really walking into was an ambush (though not the kind that Amenadiel thought it was). Lucifer sighed heavily. At least he could look forward to tomorrow… another day with the Detective. And perhaps then, he could go with her to her home and relax there with her…

As soon as Lucifer stepped off of the elevator, he knew that Amenadiel and his other brothers were there. “Alright, you lot,” he sighed, “I know you’re bloody here.” He poured a drink for himself and downed it, and then he poured himself another, but this one he savored. It was one of his favorite vintages, smooth but it burned on the way down. 

“Luci,” Amenadiel started from behind him.

“Brother,” Lucifer sighed. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?” He raised a brow and went to sit in one of the chairs beyond the piano. “You want me to apologize for whatever it is I’ve done, and you want them to forgive me, is that it?”

Amenadiel’s brow furrowed. “Yes, Lucifer, that’s what I want.” 

(And it was like Amenadiel thought that’s what he should want too, but all Lucifer wanted was to be with the Detective and to savor the glass of scotch he was sipping at.)

Lucifer scoffed and Michael and Gabriel came into his line of sight, both of them wearing smirks. “So, Lucifer, what exactly will you be apologizing for?” Gabriel asked, nudging Michael like he used to whenever they would ask him that question (it had happened a lot when they were younger, but no matter what he answered he was always wrong and… and perhaps the Detective was right… perhaps he _hadn’t_ done anything wrong).

“Who said anything about apologizing?” he snarked. “I said that’s what Amenadiel wanted, what I want is for all of you to leave. This is my home, Brothers. I would like to relax in peace before I head downstairs.”

“You haven’t apologized yet!” Michael ground out. 

Lucifer looked at his brother. He was fuming. “What have I done that requires me to apologize? I’ve been down here on earth living the life that I have been wanting to live, not bothering any of you except when one of you deigns to visit me… and why are those visits always to attack me?” Lucifer stood and walked to the bar, pouring himself another drink when he got there. “First Amenadiel, then Uriel, the poor bastard… and now you… the only one of my visitors that doesn’t try to kill me is Azrael, but don’t tell her I know about her visits, it would embarrass her, not that you’d care, would you?” he sighed. “Now if this is about, Uriel, I really didn’t want to, but he left me no choice, threatening our mother and a human… What would you have done, Mikey, protector of humans?”

“Lucifer,” Amenadiel cautioned. 

“No, brother. They don’t want an apology from me. See, I’ve learned something today. Someone I… Someone I was with today told me that I couldn’t have done anything to either of you recently because I’ve been here on Earth…” Lucifer sighed. “And unless you’ve been watching me, which is a little creepy, Brother, really, then I couldn’t have done anything to either of you to warrant an attack, could I?”

“Watch yourself, Devil,” Michael growled, hands clenched. 

Lucifer scoffed. “You just want me to feel helpless, weak…” Lucifer leaned back against the bar and lifted his glass toward Michael and Gabriel. “You know… I learned all I needed about torture from the two of you… made the job easier in hell…”

“How dare you!” Michael roared. “We are justified in our punishments of you and I demand an apology!” Michael stepped forward, sword in hand, pointed at him. 

Lucifer ignored them. “Do you know… the children that you get in the Silver City… the ones that probably ask you if they’re safe, if their mummy and daddy are going to hurt them?” Lucifer paused, looking into his glass, and swirling the remaining liquid. He met all of their eyes, Amenadiel and Gabriel looked away, but Michael was fuming, the anger seeping off of him and infecting the room “That’s what it felt like when I got to hell. I was finally free of Father… free of you… No one could hurt me there, not as badly as the three of you ever had, and I was so very relieved. I hadn’t quite realized why until today…”

Michael lunged forwards and dug the tip of the sword into his shoulder, he was careful not to go all the way though, he was always careful. Lucifer didn’t scream. It hurt, it hurt very much, but he wasn’t finished talking yet. “You see, Michael,” Lucifer said, his voice steady even as his brother twisted the blade just a little. “You’re doing this because you’re cruel and because you’re bored and because if Father did it, if Father treated me the way he always has, then you should get to too… isn’t that right?”

Michael threw the sword aside and lunged at him. Lucifer tried to fight back but Michael was too close, too angry, and he was hitting him in the face too quickly and much too hard for Lucifer to catch a break. He was thrown to the ground and the next thing he knew was that Michael was kicking him over and over again and all he wanted was for it to stop. For everything to stop. 

Suddenly it did. He couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his heartbeat in his ears and the extreme pain he was in. Michael had slammed his back into the ground and that was what had left him open for the rest of Michael’s attack. He came back to himself after a moment of lying on the ground and saw that Amenadiel had Michael in a headlock and Gabriel was watching everything in shock.

“It makes you feel better doesn’t it?” Lucifer growled, struggling a little to stand up. “Makes you feel like you think Father feels?” Michael struggled against Amenadiel but couldn’t break his brother’s hold. “Get out of my home, all of you.” Lucifer sighed and walked away from them into the bathroom to shower and get the stench of blood off of him. He could feel that some of the slashes on his back were opened, could tell that they were bleeding and he wanted nothing more than for them to heal, but he would never take a feather from any of his brothers, never, not even as a peace offering. 

He looked in the mirror and knew that tomorrow, the Detective was going to be like she was the first day, perhaps worse because he had his back and to contend with as well. His plan had been to go down to Lux and play a few songs for his adoring public, but now, because of his shoulder he was… he couldn’t play properly…

He tried to breathe through the pain that wracked his body, even breathing hurt. He grit his teeth as he tried to lift his arm over his head, but his shoulder was… the sword hadn’t quite gone all the way through his shoulder, but it had torn the ligaments and it would take him about a week to fully heal. He collapsed, naked, into bed, hurting and hoping that the pain would stop. He would have loved to drink until he couldn’t feel anything, but he barely made it to his bed from the bathroom. He laid there, his shoulder throbbing, alongside his face and his entire torso. 

He barely slept, the pain almost too much for him, but as soon as the sun started rising, he decided to start getting ready. His back felt much better than it had yesterday, and his shoulder had stopped bleeding sometime during the night. He was exhausted but he hurt too much to rest. It took him much longer than usual to get ready for work, but he thought that perhaps his excuse was good enough. He had almost been tempted to not wear his usual layers, but the thought of being without them… He sighed and grit his teeth through the pain of putting on his waistcoat. He had a session with Linda that morning and he made sure every part of his outfit looked immaculate before he got into his car (not the corvette because of his shoulder, one of his newer cars, an automatic, so he could drive with one arm). It was much harder to keep his arm still than he thought it would be, but he couldn’t move it to put his hand in his pocket, so he was stuck with his arm awkwardly bent at the elbow and held tight to his side. 

“Oh, G- Jeez!” Linda stammered out as he walked into her office. “Are you… What happened to your face… again?”

Lucifer lowered himself to the couch gingerly. “Michael,” he sighed, wincing a little bit. 

“Lucifer…” she started.

“I know, Doctor,” he told her. “Amenadiel was under the impression that they would forgive me if I could just apologize to them, but as you can see, that plan went a little… Well, I didn’t have anything to apologize for, the Detective helped me see that…”

“Did she?” Linda asked. She looked concerned, but that couldn’t be helped. 

Lucifer nodded. “I… the case we’re working on… the victim has two brothers and they care for him very much. Very unlike my own brothers and I was… am struggling with that. How anyone could get along with their brothers is beyond me, but… The Detective overheard a phone call between Amenadiel and I.” Lucifer huffed out a laugh and grimaced in pain. “She said she wanted to punch him in the face.”

“She cares about you,” Linda said. “She cares about what happens to you and wants you to be safe.”

“Yes,” Lucifer said looking out the window. “She seems to be one of the few… She said that I hadn’t seen my brothers since my fall, so how could I have done anything to upset them… She was right of course, but refusing to try to apologize earned me quite the beating…”

Linda pursed her lips. “And if you had apologized?” 

Lucifer smiled bitterly, “More of the same, Doctor. I think Amenadiel was more shocked than any of them. Gabriel was… well, as soon as I mentioned the children that came to the gates sometimes, he was… I don’t think he realized that he was…” Lucifer paused for a long moment, not wanting to say… “Michael was just angry,” he continued, “as you can see.”

“Lucifer, you do know that it’s okay that you were abused, don’t you?” Linda asked and Lucifer looked away from her. “It doesn’t make you a different person…”

“In any case,” Lucifer continued, like she hadn’t spoken, “I don’t know if Michael will leave me be, but I do believe Amenadiel and Gabriel will. That in and of itself would be a miracle. Let’s hope that Amenadiel doesn’t get it stuck in his head that Gabriel needs to apologize to me… I’d rather never talk to him again.”

“You should definitely take some time to adjust,” Linda told him. 

He smiled at her and then told her he had to go. “I promised the Detective her soy latte with low-fat caramel drizzle, and I’d hate to disappoint her.”

“Do you know how she’s going to react to how you look today? Are you prepared to deal with that?” Linda asked before he could get up. 

“She’ll be concerned, like you were, I expect…” He shrugged. “Angry at my brothers, like she was yesterday, as well.”

“And that’s _all_ you think it’ll be with her?” Linda asked, brows raised and expectant.

“What other reaction is there to have?” Lucifer asked. 

He left her office and breezed through ordering the Detective a coffee. And if he went ahead and bought something for all of his other friends at the precinct, well, he was just feeling a little generous. He met Officer Sasha in the parking lot, and she helped him bring the coffee and pastries into the precinct. He gave her an extra donut and a friendly smile for her trouble, and he caught sight of the Detective as he breezed through the bullpen. She was at her desk concentrating on the papers strewn there, and he couldn’t help the fond smile as he walked up to her. “Here you are, darling,” he told her quietly, and set her coffee in the space where hers usually was (but it looked like she hadn’t gotten a cup as she usually would, waiting for him to bring something for her as he promised, and that pleased him a ridiculous amount).

She gaped at him when she looked up. “Lucifer,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. 

“Are you alright, Detective?” he asked, reaching forward with his injured arm and gasped in pain mid-movement. He crowded her instead, placing his good hand on her cheek. 

Chloe gaped at him. “Me?” she asked. “Lucifer… you… What happened to you? You were… you didn’t look like this yesterday…” Her tears were streaming down her face and he didn’t know quite what to do (and perhaps Linda had been right to ask him how the Detective would react to seeing him. It _was_ particularly brutal, and he was glad that she couldn’t see the rest of him). 

Lucifer looked away from her, but he wanted to answer her. He just wasn’t sure he could look at her while he did it. “Amenadiel was waiting for me at my penthouse with Michael and Gabriel…” he told her, looking past her shoulder, his eyes landing on the Lieutenant who was staring at him, so Lucifer stared back until the other man walked away. 

“The three of them did this to you?” Chloe sniffled.

“No… no, just Michael,” Lucifer sighed. “He was angry that I had… well, I told him what I thought of him and his request for an apology and this is the result…”

Chloe’s eyes filled with tears and she slid her arms gently, tentatively low around his waist and he tried not to wince or show pain when she squeezed him gently, but he must have because she pulled back like he’d struck her. “He hurt more than your face?” she asked, and he nodded, still not looking at her even though it was all he wanted to do. She sighed out a sob and leaned forward to let her forehead rest on the center of his chest. He let his good arm come around her and she shook her head against him. “Why aren’t you using your other arm?” she whispered.

He didn’t answer, but he held her closer with the one arm he could use. They stood there for a while until Lucifer sighed and tipped the Detective’s chin up to look her in the eye. “Your coffee’s going to get cold, my darling Detective,” he told her with a small smile, hoping to get her to give him one back. She tried, but it was weak, and she looked more worried than she had yesterday and that was something he hadn’t thought possible. 

He pulled a chair up to her desk and sat gingerly next to her. He couldn’t lean backwards or forwards, so he sat up straight and gritted through the pain in his ribs. He was wondering if he would have to ask her if he could take it easy for the day, when she picked up her phone and agreed to have Daniel to pick up an ‘Oliver Stephens’ and bring him in for questioning. “I had Dan go out to the college earlier and try to catch the kid Jason’s roommate said he met in his morning class. That led him to this Oliver kid, the ‘leader’ of their little group. Dan’s been keeping me updated about the case and he thinks he finally found him.”

Lucifer and Chloe were sitting in comfortable silence until Ella walked up to them with the results of the tests, she’d done on the drugs that she and Lucifer had brought back to the station the day before. She was in the middle of a sentence when she looked up and saw Lucifer. “Oh man! What happened to your face? Are you in a fight club or something? Talk about taking a beating, Lucifer!”

Lucifer blinked at her. “Thank you, Miss Lopez…” he droned, voice flat.

“No! I meant, are you okay?” she rushed. “Sorry, buddy…”

“I’ll be alright, my dear,” he told her, and he felt Chloe’s eyes on him. He tried to ignore the concern and worry that was practically pouring off of her, but he couldn’t, so he reached a hand toward her and she immediately took it in hers and refused to let go. “Tell us about these drugs the Detective wouldn’t let me try yesterday,” he teased the both of them with a smile.

Ella rolled her eyes fondly at him and he let her speak as he watched Chloe out of the corner of his eye. She was staring at him, but she was responding to Ella as she told them about the ecstasy and the Adderall that was in the baggies he’d found. “Typical college drugs,” Ella finished with a shrug. 

“I was surprised that there was no weed, but I suppose he could’ve smoked it all already,” Lucifer sighed and then winced as he accidentally took too deep of a breath. “Unless he was selling like his roommate suggested…”

“He definitely could’ve been,” Chloe told him, but her tone was gentle, and she was looking at him like she cared, and he was… he didn’t know quite what to do with that.

There was a moment of quiet between them before Chloe thanked Ella. “Of course, Decker! You know I got you, gurl!” she said, and gave them a grin as she walked away (she said that she had some lab work to do for Detective Seamus’s robbery case). 

Chloe let herself look at Lucifer for a long moment and sighed. “Are you really okay?” she asked him softly.

“I will be, my darling,” he told her with a gentle smile. She still looked worried and he moved forward to grab one of her hands with a wince as he accidentally moved his shoulder. “I’m healing, Detective,” he said, stroking her hand with his thumb.

“I just…” Chloe started and sighed heavily, “I just want you to be okay, and I want your brothers to leave you alone, and I want… I want you to stop hurting…” She cleared her throat and he saw that her eyes were watery, and he wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know how…

“It’s just how my brothers are, darling,” he sighed. “But perhaps what happened last night will give them pause…”

Chloe just stared at him worriedly until her phone rang and Dan told them that he had arrived, and could they please prep an interrogation room. Chloe told him that the second one was prepped, and he brought the young man straight there when he walked into the precinct. Chloe was a little worried about Lucifer walking and moving around but he assured her that he was fine, and that he could “manage a few laps around the precinct, love.”

Their suspect, Oliver Stephens, was a typical, sneering, punk of a child. Lucifer was not impressed, and he could tell that although this kid had tried to make fun of Lucifer’s beat up face, he was very scared indeed. “Olly,” Lucifer practically purred, and he leaned forward, ignoring the twinge in his side, “what did you desire from Jason, my dear?” 

“I, uh…” Oliver started.

“Come now, Olly, darling,” he said, grinning. “You can tell me…”

“I needed him to sell those drugs, man! He was my ticket to a new PlayStation!” Oliver said in a rush. “I just… I pawned that stuff off on him, and I… I might have gotten him in deep with my… my uh… supervisor, if you know what I mean…”

“The man you sell drugs to your peers for?” Lucifer asked for clarification, though it wasn’t needed, but he _did_ like to make people sweat.

Oliver nodded and proceeded to tell them everything they needed to know about his ‘supervisor’ and even a little bit about the operation itself. That he had told his ‘supervisor’ that Jason had stolen the drugs from him instead of the truth and how his ‘supervisor’ said that he would take care of it (but he had refused to give out the name of his ‘supervisor’ even though he told them (read: heavily hinted at them) that the leaders of the whole operation were the Weston Brothers, who, it turned out were supplying drugs to most of the colleges in the area).

“If Jason was selling those drugs and not giving all of the money he made to Oliver, then that could explain why he would have gotten killed,” Chloe told the group as they all sat out in the bull-ben. “Especially considering who he was selling for.”

“The Weston brothers are a kind of major deal,” Dan told them. “I know the narcotics teams are having a hard-enough time with them, but I’ve heard that Peter Weston isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. They just haven’t been able to catch him in the act or get any proof.” He slapped a folder against the palm of his hand considering their options.

“It’s possible that one of the Weston brothers pulled this off,” Ella agreed. “It’s scary similar to a lot of other killings that we’ve _almost_ linked back to them.” She blew out a breath and spoke out the corner of her mouth, “But we can never prove any of them because there’s never enough physical evidence left at the scene.”

Chloe sighed, “We need to connect them Jason’s death somehow…”

“The only way we’d even be able to do that would be deep cover and I know that narcotics already has a man working that angle,” Dan shrugged. “I could ask them to tell their man to be on the lookout for info on it.”

Chloe was shaking her head before he’d finished. “That would take too long…”

“Perhaps a fishing operation then?” Lucifer asked. They all turned to look at him. “I could set up a meeting with the Westons and ask them about setting up a steady supply to Lux,” he suggested. When Dan crossed his arms, he huffed out a laugh, and tried not to double over in pain, “I wouldn’t actually set it up, it would just be a meeting, Daniel. There’s really no need for something like that to be in place at Lux, you can usually find anything you like there if you loo-”

“We get it, Lucifer,” Chloe cut him off with a slight glare. Lucifer lifted his hand as a sign of surrender. “That’s actually not a bad idea, though…” she sighed, but then she looked him over worriedly. “Are you… are you sure you can handle it?”

“I can handle just about anything, Detective,” he told her, but it was missing its usual bite, because he knew she was worried about him personally and not worried about his ability to perform the task well. He met her eyes for a long moment, trying to let her know that he was fine, that she didn’t have to worry, but she just stared back at him with her furrowed brow as she worried at her lip with her teeth. “I’ll be alright, darling,” he added softly and just for her, forgetting that they were in front of Ella and Daniel. 

“You guys are _so_ adorable I don’t know what to do with you sometimes,” Ella sighed, like she was watching a sweet moment in a romantic comedy. 

He watched Chloe turn the most flattering shade of pink and smiled at her like she was the most adorable thing he’d ever encountered (and he had encountered many things that could be considered adorable and there his Detective was at the top of the list). 

“Let’s just… make a plan,” Chloe rolling her eyes and sneaking a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. Something must have made her pause because she watched him in for a moment and then her stance softened, and she turned to face him and uncrossed her arms. “Do you think you’d be able to convince them enough to meet with you?” she asked.

“Of course,” he told her. “I’ll tell them that I’ve been thinking about it, but I certainly won’t tell them why, and then I could mention something about secrets needing to be kept, and if anyone ever told or tried to betray me, whatever would I do?” 

“And you’d get them talking about enforcement,” Dan finished.

Lucifer nodded in his direction with an impressed grin. “Daniel, I’m surprised!”

“It’s not my first rodeo, pal,” Dan smirked and then recoiled when Lucifer looked him up and down playfully. He did love making Daniel squirm…

Chloe got them back on task, by trying to formulate a plan, thinking that they might check for wires, and wondering how they could record the meeting, but how could they without a wire? Lucifer stopped paying attention for a moment and absently reached for a bottle of water the Detective had gotten for herself (but they had never cared much about who’s drink belonged to whom, and they were in the habit of sharing most beverages, mostly because it was convenient, but really, as long as it was each other they had long stopped caring what belonged to whom) but he used his injured arm and made an aborted shout of pain. His vision went white and he wasn’t aware that Daniel had come closer in concern and placed a hand on his back, making Lucifer flinch away in pain (which aggravated his probably broken (again) ribs and caused him to growl in pain and defense and it hurt so very much to breathe). 

The next thing he was aware of was the Detective’s fingers in his hair as she was scolding Daniel for touching his back when she had told him not to. He tried to tell her that he was alright, that she didn’t have to yell at Daniel, but he couldn’t quite make himself do anything but feel pain. She had somehow maneuvered him so that his head was resting against her as she stood next to him. Eventually he managed to speak, “It’s alright, darling, don’t be mad at Daniel, love…”

“It’s not ‘alright’!” she told him; her face creased with a worried frown. “You’re… It’s _not_ alright, Lucifer! You hurting like this is _not_ okay and I-” She cut herself off with a frustrated sigh. “It’s not okay…” she finished softly. 

He stared at her in shock. No one had ever cared for him quite like the Detective, like Chloe did and he was… he was speechless… “Darling…” he said, gently and like she was so very brave and important to him (she was and he wanted her to know it, but he could never quite find the right words…). “It’s alright, Detective. There’s no helping it now, so we may as well continue…” he sighed. He kept her close to him with an arm around her waist (his bad arm, but he didn’t let that stop him), but he pulled back enough to address the group. “If the narcotics division was able to infiltrate the Weston’s operation, then perhaps we should take the easy route. I’ll wear a wire, and they’ll either find it or they won’t. It’s worth the risk, I’d say…”

Chloe sighed. “I really don’t like that idea…” she told him. She was looking at him, her eyes worried and she was biting her lip (and he wanted to soothe away her worry and pull her lip from between her teeth, but he couldn’t because he wasn’t hers, not like he wanted to be…).

“It might be the only way,” Dan noted with a shrug. 

Chloe shook her head. “I don’t like it…” she said softly, and like she didn’t mean to, like it was an accident, she ran a hand through his hair and cupped the back of his neck with it. Lucifer watched as she deliberated moving away from him, but he leaned into the contact and sighed, hoping she’d stay put (she did, and he let a small smile play along his lips). 

“I’ll be as careful as I’m able,” he told her softly. She was still staring at him worriedly.

“We’ve gotta do it, Chlo’,” Dan said. “I’m not happy about it either, but we have to.”

“I wanna be there,” she told him. “I want to be close while we’re doing this…” Her brow was furrowed, and her eyes were filled with steel and he couldn’t have disagreed with her if he wanted to.

“Of course,” he agreed easily. “You’ll have to make the arrest after all.” He gave her a smile, trying to lighten the moment. “Shall I make some calls?” he asked pulling his phone from his coat pocket. Chloe nodded and he thought she was going to pull away and almost dropped his arm, but she leaned against him gently, moving her arm to rest around this shoulders (she didn’t want to hurt him, but she stayed with him as he called some people to help him set up a meeting with the Westons). He hung up and told them that his contact would call back and tell them when their meeting was. “I’ve invited them to Lux, hopefully they’ll take that as a sign of trust and not look for a wire,” he told her as he looked up at her.

“Hopefully…” she said softly. She was watching him; her brow hadn’t smoothed over and she sighed. 

Marcus Pierce chose that moment to come up to them. He raised a brow at how close they were and frowned a bit like he was jealous, but he brushed that aside to ask about the case. “Where are you with your case, Decker?” he asked curt as he always was.

Lucifer thought that Chloe was going to pull away from him because Pierce was her superior officer, but she stayed where she was. He was shocked and tried to resist looking at her like she was the sunrise. “We’ve set up a meeting for tonight with our suspected killer and I think we’re close to catching them,” she said.

Pierce nodded. “Good,” he said in his curt manner and then he walked away (but Lucifer caught him turning to look back at them, and it didn’t look like he cared much for how close Lucifer was to the Detective). 

Chloe sighed and placed a hand on the back of his neck, her fingers carding through the hair at his nape. Dan and Ella went off to prepare for the night (Ella to get the wire and equipment ready, and Dan to get the details for the meeting settled), but Chloe stayed where she was, with him. “Do you think you can do this?” she asked quietly.

Lucifer nodded, “Of course, I can.” She nodded at him and he sighed. “I’ll be careful, Detective…”

She nodded again, “I know… I just… I don’t like that you’re hurt and that you have to do this, it’s… I don’t like it…”

Lucifer held her tighter against him. “Everything will be fine, love. It’s only a couple of drug dealers,” he smirked at her, and usually she would roll her eyes, but today she just stared at him. He sighed, “Darling, really, it’ll be fine.” And then he got a text from his contact telling him that the Westons had agreed to a meeting with him. “They’ve agreed to meet at Lux,” he said. “We’ll set you up in the penthouse, close enough to interfere, but far enough away that they won’t suspect that there’s anything to do with the police.”

She looked like she wanted to argue, like she wanted to say that she wanted to be closer to him, that she wanted him near her because she was worried, but she reluctantly agreed. She told Dan that they would be setting up shop in the penthouse, and he went to get Ella. They needed to set up their gear and Lucifer offered them all a ride in his car so that it looked like he arrived back at Lux alone just in case the Westons were watching his club. 

“In your little corvette?” Dan asked. 

“Daniel, I have more than one vehicle,” he sighed. “I drove one of my more modern cars today.” 

They followed him into the garage and were surprised when he led them to a nondescript four door car with very tinted windows. “I didn’t know you had a car like this,” Dan said. He was struggling with the gear but had stopped complaining about Lucifer not helping when Chloe glared at him. 

“I have a lot of cars,” Lucifer said simply, and then he opened the passenger door for the Detective. He popped the trunk for Daniel and climbed into the driver’s seat. He tried not to let Chloe see the pain he was in, but he knew that he had failed when she placed her hand on his forearm. Daniel and Ella hopped into the car and Chloe pulled her hand away. As Lucifer drove, they all talked about what kind of gear they had in the back and what they were going to do if they got the information they needed (Chloe and Dan were going to do the arrest and Ella was going to stay in the penthouse and monitor the feed). Chloe had made Ella get a pair of ear wigs so she could be connected to Lucifer even as he had the wire and they could hear and record what he was saying, she wanted him to be able to hear her too. 

When they got to Lux, Lucifer pulled into the garage and parked near his private elevator. He left his friends to set up (which took hours and hours and it had been so long that he’d forgotten how long it took them to set up their equipment) and went to change his shirt. It wasn’t quite right for the night he had planned. He walked past the bar, caught sight of his brother’s sword on the ground, and sighed deeply. There was still blood on the blade, and he knew that if the Detective saw it, she might put two and two together, but he also knew that bending over to pick it up would draw attention to himself because of the pain he was in. In the end, Chloe came up to him, about to ask him a question, when she saw what he was staring at.

“Is that blood?” she asked quietly, and he didn’t answer her as he stared down at it. “Lucifer…” she started. 

He shook his head and told her that he needed to change his shirt. He walked away from her and tried not to look back at her as he reached the doorway of his bedroom, but he did look back and met her eyes. He looked away quickly and disappeared into his closet. He didn’t want her to follow him, and thought that she might, and even if she didn’t… He didn’t want her to see him struggle. He braced himself for when he tried to take his suit jacket and waistcoat off. 

It hurt more than he expected it to, and he suspected that it was because of the Detective’s presence, though it had hurt almost as much that morning. He managed a shirt and a waistcoat, but he left them undone because he knew Chloe would have to attach a wire to him and it needed to be underneath his clothes. After a moment Chloe called out to him, telling him it was time to attach his wire. “Come into the bedroom, darling,” he sighed. He didn’t want anyone else to see, didn’t even want her to see but he didn’t have a choice about that. 

Chloe came into the room and he was facing away from her, from the doorway. He let his eyes slip closed and when he heard her gasp, he knew she had seen him. “Lucifer…” she whispered, and he sighed. 

“Looks that bad, does it?” he tried to chuckle. He winced as he accidentally took too deep of a breath.

“Yeah, Lucifer, it looks bad,” she told him and when he opened his eyes, she had tears in hers. He tutted and caught her hand as she reached out to him. “It looks _really_ bad, babe…” 

He held her hand tightly for a moment (wanting nothing more than to pull her close to him, to tell her that he was alright, that he always would be, that his brothers were going to leave him alone eventually, but there wasn’t time) before he asked her if she had the wire ready. “We _are_ on a schedule, darling,” he told her softly.

“Yeah,” she started shakily. “Yeah, we are…” She crowded him and took a deep breath, but she couldn’t hide the worry in her furrowed brow. She taped the wire to him with gentle, steady fingers and traced the line of it down his body as she finished. He tried not to shudder, but she was touching him… Her fingertips on his bare skin were a balm against the pain he was in. Perhaps it was the fact that it was her, or that she was treating him so much more gently than he had ever been treated before (and it was just to attach a wire to him, nothing special… and yet… no one had ever… her fingers were so careful and soft and it almost overwhelmed him). “There,” she told him after a moment. He thought she was going to pull away, so he started to tuck in his shirt, but she surprised him by taking over the job for him. She buttoned his shirt and his waistcoat, and she was just so close to him and she was treating him so very gently that he was… He didn’t know quite what to do with himself…

“You ready?” Dan asked from the doorway. They both looked at him and Lucifer nodded. “Okay, we’re waiting for you,” he continued, and then he walked back towards Ella. 

“Here,” Chloe whispered, bringing his attention back to her. She pulled an earwig out of her pocket and put it into his ear for him. “That’s so you can hear me,” she told him. “I know I shouldn’t but… I don’t like the idea of you in there with no back up.” She smoothed her hands down the front of his shirt and lingered there for a long moment. 

“Thank you, Detective,” he told her softly. He gave her a smile and then huffed out a laugh. “I’ll say ‘monkey bottoms’ if I need you, hmm?” 

Chloe gave him a big smile and laughed brightly. “Yeah, say ‘monkey bottoms’,” she told him. She stretched up on her toes placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Be careful, okay?” she asked him, and he nodded as she led him out of the room. 

He exited the elevator as it deposited him in his club. The atmosphere was lively, and he did his usual rounds, no one caring for what had happened to his face quite like the Detective had, in fact there were only a few people that had even commented on it. It was about an hour before Patrick told him that two men were looking for him. “Send them to my usual booth, Patrick,” he said with a smile. To himself and the Detective, he muttered, “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

_“You’ve got this, Lucifer,”_ he heard in his ear and then he plastered a grin on his face as he walked up to usual booth. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting, gentlemen! Club owners are much busier than you’d think!” he said, gesturing for them to sit. “Anything to drink?” he asked as one of the waitresses came up beside the table. 

Peter Weston looked the girl up and down and asked if he could have a beer, and Darnell Weston wanted a vodka soda, and as soon as the waitress returned with their drinks. There was a few moments of small talk, just the general sort that’s made with anyone who comes to Lux. Never at any point did either of them ask if he was wearing a wire. And once they were plied with enough alcohol, Lucifer started talking about his “problem”. “Can’t ever get a steady supply, you see,” he told the two brothers.

“So, you’d like us to set up a steady supply of drugs for your club?” Darnell asked him, crossing his arms. He was a weaselly man with a long nose and his eyes were a little too far apart. 

“If we can come to an agreement,” Lucifer practically purred, and then he heard the Detective tell him he was doing a good job and had to make himself focus. “Wouldn’t want you not to get your cut. I like to think I’m a fair Devil, after all…”

“You want a cut of our money?” Peter asked. He was the larger of his brothers and also somewhat dull from what Lucifer could tell. 

Darnell held a hand out to clam his brother, “Petey, come on, he’s a businessman.” Petey grumbled into his beer and as he finished it, he was brought another (Lucifer had told the waitresses to keep the drinks flowing, that they were on the house, which he could tell both the brothers had appreciated). “How about ten percent?” Darnell offered. 

“Are you trying to rob me?” Lucifer scoffed. “Forty.”

“Fifteen.”

“Thirty-five.”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty-five, my dear Darnell and not a penny less,” Lucifer smirked (and Chloe was in his ear telling him that he really didn’t need to negotiate, but he just smirked even wider). He knew that Darnell had been aiming to give him at most that much. 

Darnell smirked, “Well, who knew I’d be making a deal with the Devil today?” and then he held out his hand for Lucifer to shake. 

“Who would’ve thought?” Lucifer smirked back and shook the other man’s hand while hiding a grimace because it was his injured arm. “Now I am concerned about people not doing as they’re told, chain of command and all that… is there any way to… enforce, shall we say, the leg men to do their work? All I want is for us all to get what we want out of this arrangement…” 

“Petey’s the brawn of the operation, aren’t you, Petey?” he asked. 

“Oh yeah,” Petey laughed. “Did something like that just the other day, in fact!”

“Did you?” Lucifer asked, with a sharp grin. “Tell me everything!” he insisted, and Petey and his brother Darnell were drunk enough to spill the beans, so to speak (and it sounded like they were excited to show off, to tell Lucifer everything about what they’d done, and as far as Chloe was concerned it was because of Lucifer’s ‘mojo’ that they wanted to tell him anything at all, which it was, in part, but it was also just Lucifer being himself). 

“One of our ‘employees’ Olly, didn’t get paid for a big sale, so we had to get our prescriptions back, if you know what I mean,” Petey told him with a smirk. “Jay or something, his name was, I think… Shot him in the back because he was running away from me, the little bastard!” Then Petey and Darnell laughed, like it was funny that they’d killed someone…

Lucifer hadn’t known he was growling until the Detective was in his ear, telling him to calm down and to keep them occupied until she and Dan could get down to the club. Lucifer sighed and asked them if they had to “enforce their rules” a lot, and if they were sure their operation was safe, and if possible, could they guarantee only the highest quality of drugs for his club. “It’s quite high end, after all, it wouldn’t do to have low quality drugs now, would it?”

And that was the moment that the Detective and Dan surrounded them and clapped the brothers in irons. Lucifer waved at them as they were dragged away and waited for the Detective to return to him after she dropped her bounties off in the waiting squad cars across the street. 

“You feel okay enough to come back to the precinct to question them?” she asked him, her brow furrowed. 

Lucifer’s head ticked to the side, “That’s part of the job, isn’t it?”

Chloe nodded. “But if you don’t… if you feel like… if you’re hurting, then…” she sighed as she struggled with finding the right words. 

Lucifer gave her a fond, tired smile. “Let’s head to the precinct, darling. We’ve got a case to solve, after all…” he told her. And Chloe smiled at him as she led him to the garage. She picked out the car he’d been driving earlier, and she practically bundled him into the passenger’s seat. “You do know I can drive, don’t you?” he asked after she pulled out of the garage and into the street. 

She rolled her eyes at him and he was glad that he could still make her do that even if he felt like his own body was tearing itself apart (and the only other time he’d been in pain like this was back in the Silver City after his Father had finished ‘disciplining’ him and then Michael and Gabriel had found him and used the former’s sword on him and he’d had to wear the same tattered, blood covered tunic for a week as he hid from all of his siblings except for Azrael, who he couldn’t get rid of no matter what he did, so he let her hang around him even when he was hurting so badly he could barely move, and eventually her voice had become something to focus on, but then one day Michael and Gabriel had caught them together and when Michael had reached for little Rae-Rae and he had felt the desire to hurt behind the motion, he’d fought harder than he ever had and beat Michael for the first time even as he’d been bleeding and a little bit broken, and that had been his first inkling of true strength…). “I know you can, Lucifer,” she told him with a little smile. “I just want you to relax. You made a big bust today, for us and narcotics, so I think that deserves a little relaxation.”

He blinked at her. No one had ever… no one ever wanted him to relax, they usually wanted him to do everything for them and he was… he’d never had that before. He watched her as she drove and couldn’t help but smile at her gently like she was… she was very important to him, was all, and it was… He appreciated it.

They got to the precinct and Lucifer followed her out of the car (and it hurt, a little, him moving around and he was glad that Chloe grabbed his arm and waited for him to give her a little nod). She led him through the precinct and into the interrogation room that Daniel had prepared for them.

“You!” Darnell Weston shouted as soon as Lucifer entered the room. 

“Me!” Lucifer smirked. “They didn’t rough you up too much, did they?” 

Darnell frowned, but he told them that he hadn’t been roughed up but the other officers. “You tricked us!” he accused.

“And you’re the leader of a major drug operation,” Lucifer said, “so perhaps we were both in the wrong?”

Darnell nodded. “That’s true…” he sighed. 

“What do you know about Jason Smitherson’s murder?” Chloe asked. When Darnell asked who Jason was, Chloe sighed. They spent a few more moments interrogating him, and when he said his brother would know more, that he was the muscle for the entire operation, Chloe thanked him, and they left him in the second interrogation room and went to go see his brother in interrogation room one. 

“Come on, man!” Peter said as they entered the room. 

“Petey,” Lucifer smirked. “Your brother has been _talking_ to us, hasn’t he, Detective?”

“Oh…” Chloe started, “Oh, yeah, he definitely has.” 

Peter sighed, dejected, and asked what they wanted to know. When Chloe asked him about murdering Jason and showed him the crime scene photos, he just sighed and nodded. (And suddenly, the half-spelt word by Jason’s body had made sense, a ‘w’, an ‘e’ and a half finished ‘s’ and really, Lucifer should have put that together sooner, but he had been a little preoccupied with his brothers and all that had happened.)

Chloe and Dan had been surprised that neither of them had called a lawyer and once the formalities of the case were done, Chloe offered to drive Lucifer back to his penthouse. As they were in the car, Chloe kept glancing at him, and he knew she probably had more questions (especially since she had seen the sword and that was fine, it was her job to ask questions, and she was naturally protective, so he would let her ask and perhaps he would answer…), but she didn’t ask what he thought she was going to. 

“Did you want to spend the night with me and Trixie tonight?” she asked him, and he grunted in pain as he accidentally hurt himself as he turned towards her sharply. She chewed at her lips as she waited for him to answer, but all he could do was gape at her. “You don’t have to,” Chloe continued when he took too long to answer. “I just thought… well, if you wanted to get away from your brothers and… Trixie and I never got around to ordering Chinese yesterday, so we could get it today… but if you don’t-”

“Detective, I’d be delighted,” he told her, soft and small and gentle because she wanted to protect him and make him feel safe, he knew or he hoped, but he wasn’t sure (could he ever be? No one had ever _really_ cared about him, not like the Detective seemed to, but was that real? Was anything with her real or was it just because his Father had made her to manipulate him? He knew what he felt for her was real, so perhaps… perhaps it was real on her part as well?). 

Chloe gave him a big smile. “You wanna get some stuff from your place?” she asked him. “Pajamas and another suit for tomorrow?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, darling,” Lucifer told her with a tender gaze and smile.

Chloe smiled at him and they spent the rest of the drive talking softly (and Lucifer caught Chloe’s hand at one point and neither of them particularly wanted to let go, so they didn’t). Lucifer rushed up to his penthouse and gathered what he needed, going so far as to grab the extra soft blanket that the Detective liked to use whenever she was over at his and it had gotten late, or as they watched television together. As soon as he was back in the car, he relaxed back against the seat and hissed in discomfort as he settled. Chloe worried her lip as she glanced at him occasionally, and he took her hand again to stop her brow from furrowing. 

“It’s alright, Detective,” he spoke against her fingers as he kissed her hand. “Barely hurts, love…”

Chloe sighed heavily but her brow smoothed over the tiniest bit. “I’d rather it didn’t hurt at all…” she told him. Her voice was grumpy, and he couldn’t help the fond smile that crossed his face. “Let me go in the house first,” she sighed after a moment. “I don’t want Trix to hurt you, okay?”

He hummed absently and as she pulled into her parking space; he took his time following her to the door. She was kneeling, talking to her daughter as the little girl watched him worriedly. He cocked his head to the side, confused, as the little urchin’s eyes filled with tears at the sight of him.

“Spawn?” he asked, quietly. 

The little girl’s bottom lip wobbled, and her tears spilled over and he really had no idea what to do to make her feel better. Her mother was trying to comfort her but, she just kept staring at him until she sniffled and asked him, “You’re hurt again?” He gaped at her and tried to speak, but for some reason he couldn’t. He didn’t know what to say. Chloe sighed and started to tell her daughter that he would be okay, that she didn’t have to worry, but the little girl shook her head. “You said they hurt him more!” she wailed. 

“Monkey, he’s okay, I promise, he just feels a little…” Chloe trailed off as Trixie’s frown deepened. 

“He said his brothers were mean to him…” the little girl said, “And then they… You said they hurt him again, Mom, and that’s…” Her tears started to fall steadily, and she sniffled. She looked from her mother to him and he didn’t know… there was… He wanted her to stop crying and looking at him like she cared, and she was so very like her mother sometimes that it threw him, and he was… he didn’t know what to do…

“Beatrice, you urchin,” he started (and she looked up at him with tears in her eyes and he had to pause for a moment as he looked down at her), “I’m… It doesn’t matter. I’ll be alright, darling…”

“It does matter!” she cried. “It matters a lot!”

Lucifer was taken aback by her vehemence. No one… no one but Chloe and her daughter had ever cared for him like this. Rather, no one had ever really cared for him at all (except perhaps Azrael but she was his little sister, and he always protected her, so she cared but he expected that she felt a little helpless when it came to protecting him). These two were particularly insistent about caring about him and protecting him. He’d never met anyone quite like them.

“Of course, it matters, Lucifer,” Chloe told him. She was still kneeling down next to her daughter, and he couldn’t help gaping at her, at them and how they cared so very deeply for him. “We care about you.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but Beatrice stepped forward and gently, as if he were made of the thinnest paper in the world, wound her arms around his waist and sobbed into his shirt. He was made speechless by the power of her and her mother (who was watching them with tears in her eyes and he really needed to stop making her cry, because she was so strong and he’d… perhaps he’d broken her just a little bit… but she’d broken him too, and really, they had broken each other and he’d give anything in the universe to fix her if only he knew how…). He placed a shaking hand on the little urchin’s head and sighed. “It’s alright, little darling…” he said softly, helplessly. “Really, I promise, urchin…”

Beatrice pulled back and looked up at him. “You’re still hurt…” she sniffled. He nodded. “You should stay with us until you get better so me and mommy can take care of you.”

“That’s the plan, Monkey,” Chloe said with a little laugh. 

The little girl cheered, and finally let go of him to finish her homework as her mother asked her to. Lucifer came up to Chloe and when she met his eyes he sighed. “Are you sure you’re up for it, Detective?” he asked. 

Chloe tried to hide a smile and shook her head. “I think I can handle you,” she told him.

“Oh, please do, darling,” he purred. And when she looked at him with that strict, but fond expression she reserved just for him, he smiled at her. Her gaze softened as she stared at him. “What?” he asked when she had stared for a little too long. 

She shook her head. “Just… you look… you weren’t… For the last week you’ve been… I haven’t really seen you smile since your brothers…” she sighed and shook her head again. “It’s good to see you smile…”

She walked away from him, picking up her phone as she went, presumably to order their dinner. He stared after her, he didn’t think that anyone would notice. This _was_ the Detective though, so perhaps he’d had a bit of blind hope…

Beatrice finished the last bit of her homework shortly after her mother got off the phone, and she grabbed his hand softly as she passed him and tugged at him so much more gently than she ever had before. “Come on, Lucifer, I want you to read to me,” she told him (her mother gave her a look and Trixie had deflated a little but she didn’t let go of the three fingers she had in her grip, and Lucifer found that, mysteriously, he didn’t want her to). “Or… I could read to myself? Will you sit with me?” she looked up at him and he let her drag him to the couch. 

He watched her as she ran to her room to get a book and furrowed his brow as she leaned against him carefully. She opened her book and started to read, but she kept glancing up at him, so he sighed, wincing as it was too sharp and long for his ribs. “What are you reading, child?” he asked. 

“_Matilda_,” she told him cheerfully. “It’s about a little girl with powers who has really mean parents and a really mean teacher, but there’s this other really nice teacher that wants to be her family. She likes to read a lot.” 

He watched her read to herself, mouthing the words to herself occasionally, and Lucifer sighed and held out his hand for the book. “Give it here, spawn,” he told her. She grinned up at him and handed him the book. She pointed to where she had left off and then she settled against his side slowly like she didn’t want to hurt him. He cleared his throat (which was felt a little tight as she leaned against him, so he took a moment to breathe) and started to read. She had just started the book, so he wasn’t too behind in the story, which was interesting and actually… Well, he was enjoying it (and so was the Detective, it seemed, because she was listening as he read, leaning against the side of the couch with her eyes closed and a small smile on her face). He didn’t know how long he spent reading, but it must have been a while because Beatrice was leaning against him more heavily and the food had arrived a few minutes ago, but he only had a few more paragraphs left in the chapter, so he wanted to finish before Chloe called them over to eat. 

Chloe let him finish (she’d come up behind him to see how long he’d had left and then she’d stayed there, her hand tangling into the hairs at the nape of his neck and distracting him for half a second before he made himself focus on the words in front of him), and then she herded them over to the table so they could eat. He’d missed them… missed spending time with them, missed how they made him feel and… He wanted that again. The ease they used to have… and it was still easy, but… but they’d been through so much that it felt different and familiar all at once.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're almost done with thhiiisssssss onnneeee!!!!!! how exciting!!!!!!!!! how nerve wracking!!!!!!!! what's gonna happen???? who's gonna be there??????? will the cuddling ever end???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> also, one of my favorite scenes i've ever written is in this chapter!! which one do you think it is?

It was the start of the weekend, so the little urchin was allowed to be up past her usual bedtime. They all settled on the couch, Beatrice between the two of them, and as Chloe handed him a glass of wine, the movie that the little girl picked out started to play. Lucifer almost drained his glass in one go as the opening song began to play (it was _Tangled_ and whilst it was better than that _Frozen_ drivel, it was still tedious and boring, though he did understand Flynn Ryder’s plight just a bit). As soon as the movie was over, the little girl placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and followed her mother to her room. 

Lucifer waited until Chloe came back from putting her daughter to bed. She settled next to him, so very close but not close enough (never close enough), and he watched her carefully. She was looking at him, and he didn’t quite know what she wanted so he offered her a tired smile. 

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked him at a whisper. Her forehead was creased with worry and she was perilously close to biting her lip. He told her he was and then he waited. He knew she was going to ask about what she had seen at his penthouse. She took a few moments, but she did ask. “Why was there a sword with blood on it at your place?” she asked him, just as softly as she had touched him earlier. 

“It belongs to Michael,” he told her. “He left it the last time he… visited.” 

“And the blood?” Chloe asked him. He stared at her. “Lucifer, please,” she whispered, and there were tears in her eyes again but he… he couldn’t. He shook his head and waited until she told him goodnight, telling him that he could change in Trixie’s bathroom when he was ready for bed. 

He waited until she went upstairs, and then he waited until the noises of the apartment settled and all was still. He changed into a cotton shirt that he regretted grabbing because it hurt him so very badly to put it on and then he changed into soft sleeping pants and settled onto the couch. Or he tried to settle on the couch. With all of his injuries, it was hard for him to get comfortable, but eventually he settled on his side. He slept fitfully and, in the morning, he was woken up by the urchin as she stared at him. He managed to push himself into a seated position, and when he opened his eyes (he’d closed them because of the pain) the little girl was staring at him, her brow furrowed like her mother’s had been the night before.

“Are you okay, Lucifer?” she asked him, climbing onto the couch and cuddling under his arm. 

He hummed in response and gathered the child closer to his side as he tried not to yawn. He failed and immediately let out a strangled yelp of pain as his ribs expanded beyond their ability. Beatrice had pulled away from him and was frowning at him worriedly. He shook off the pain and asked her if she’d like anything for breakfast, but she shook her head at him and as gently as possible, she snuggled into his side. “Aren’t you hungry, darling?” he looked down at her. 

“Yeah,” she told him. “But I don’t want you to hurt yourself…” 

He stared at her, confused about how her and her mother could care so much about him. No one had ever cared that he was hurt before… “How about some cereal?” he asked her. “I’m sure I can manage that, darling…”

She gave him a small smile and nodded. He wanted to scoop her up and carry her to the kitchen, but he suppressed that desire and followed her into the kitchen (she grabbed his hand and pulled him along and… well, it felt… it was almost nice…). He poured her some cereal and hid a chuckle as she stuffed her mouth too full on her first bite. She was staring at him and after he raised his brows at her, she grinned at him. “You look tired, was the couch uncomfortable? Daddy used to hate sleeping on the couch when he got in trouble with mommy,” she said, in that way he’d noticed kids do. 

Lucifer was about to answer when Chloe placed a hand on his back as she slipped past him to the coffee maker. He sucked in a breath as she touched him in part pain, part surprise. Chloe leaned against the counter as the coffee machine percolated and she smiled at him. “Hey, babe, did you sleep okay?” she asked him. 

He nodded but then from behind him, Beatrice, shrugged, “I don’t think he did, Mommy. He looked all scrunched up this morning and he was frowning before he woke up.”

Chloe’s forehead creased and she stepped closer to him, settling a hand on his forearm. “Why didn’t you… Lucifer, babe… you should’ve…”

“Detective, it’s fine,” he told her. His hand slid down to hers and brought it up to his mouth for a soft kiss. “No matter where I’d been sleeping, it would’ve been an uncomfortable night…” 

Chloe’s face fell a little bit and she slipped closer to him, gently putting her arms around his waist and hugging him close. The usual pressure was absent, but it felt… it felt like it always did with the Detective… safe and gentle and fond. He let his uninjured arm wrap around her as gently as she was holding him and held her there until she pulled away to make herself a cup of coffee. 

“I apologize for not making breakfast this morning,” he started after a moment. “I couldn’t… my shoulder…”

Chloe was shaking her head before he finished. “Hey, no,” she said immediately. “You don’t have to… We don’t invite you over because we like it when you make breakfast, which we do like because you can really cook, but… We like it when you’re with us.” She stared at him as she sipped her coffee and made a face when it wasn’t quite right. 

Lucifer took it from her with a fond smile and sipped at it, doctoring her a new cup before she could scold him. She sipped at it a little more suspiciously than she had sipped at the one she had made for herself, but she didn’t make a face at it (and how could he make the perfect cup of coffee for her when she couldn’t even get it right and she knew how she liked her coffee?). She let Lucifer keep her old cup (he didn’t seem to mind that she’d accidentally added too much sugar and not enough cream), and she popped some toast into the toaster for herself. She stared at him for a while and then asked him if he’d like her to make him anything. 

He gaped at her for a moment. This was… how could she… 

“Lucifer, are you hungry?” she asked him when he had probably taken too long in answering. 

“Er,” he managed, “I’m not… You don’t have to do that, darling…” 

She looked at him with the face she usually did when she wanted a straight answer out of him and he… well, he ducked his head and looked at her through his lashes. She sighed and crowded him and he looked away, flinching when she placed a hand on his arm because his brothers being here, doing what they used to kept bringing up things he hadn’t thought about in millennia (like how they used to pretend to be nice like the Detective was being now and then they’d hurt him even more. It’s how he learned to never need anything from anyone but with the Detective… with her it had been different and now he… he wanted that back with her, wanted to be able to let her do things for him as he did for her and he’d just been getting used to the concept and it was… now that was tainted too…). “Lucifer,” she whispered to him and he forced his eyes to meet hers. “Do you want some toast or eggs or something? A bowl of cereal? Anything?” Her voice was soft when she asked, and he found himself leaning towards her a little bit, his brain telling him that she couldn’t mean it, but his heart, his very soul, telling him that this was Chloe, and she’d never hurt him like his brothers had…

“Toast?” he asked, but he was looking over her shoulder, past the little urchin at the kitchen bar who was watching them like she was worried and confused all at once. 

“Butter and honey?” she asked him, her fingertips trailing along the inside of his arm. He nodded and she pulled away from him to make his toast. He stood there for a moment, opening and closing his hands anxiously. 

“Here you go, Lucifer,” Chloe said softly from his side barely even a moment later. He grabbed the plate from her, but he couldn’t look at her. She turned away and he watched her go to the toaster, making some toast for herself, which meant that the toast he had were the slices she’d started to make for himself. He tried to tell himself that he was… that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but… Well, she had to wait to eat because of him and it shouldn’t have happened that way and he… He should’ve told her he could manage, that she should sit, and he would bring her the toast she wanted with butter and cinnamon on it like she usually had. That was what he should’ve done, but instead he’d… The more important people should eat first, should be taken care of first and he was the one that was always, always last because that was how it had been and still was to this day… He was just the Devil after all… the worst humanity or beyond had to offer.

“Lucifer?” the urchin asked him from her chair at the breakfast bar. “Are you okay? Aren’t you hungry?” His head snapped towards her and he floundered a little. “Breakfast is really important,” she told him like she was an authority on the matter, like the Detective had been telling her that since she was a very young age (so it was ‘known’ like many things had been in the Silver City when they began, but then Mother and Father had started to… to argue and then ‘unknown’ things began happening and Lucifer’s life in Heaven had become Hell and then that had become the new ‘known’ and then he’d been cast out… (sometimes he wondered if Azrael’s ‘known’ had changed afterwards… If his brothers had starting hurting her when he had been banished from the Silver City, but then… Rae-Rae had never been one to stick around heaven for very long because she was always so busy) and then his ‘knowns’ became whatever he’d made them but it was never the same as when they’d all started). 

He stared at her for a long time, and then he systematically ate the toast in front of him. He could barely taste it but he… he ate all of it and then he stared down at his hands as he rested them on the counter. He was… he didn’t know what to do now and he felt… he didn’t deserve the Detective or her spawn taking care of him. His brothers and family had always been right… he was nothing compared to anyone, especially those that were so kind to him (to the Devil, and maybe they didn’t know yet but they… the longer they hung around him the sooner they would realize that he wasn’t worth it, just like all the others had).

He washed the dishes in the sink with some difficulty, but he decided that he deserved a little punishment because he’d made the Detective wait for her breakfast. He hadn’t expected Chloe to pull him away from the sink and frown at him. “Are you okay, Lucifer?” she asked him, her voice low in concern. He didn’t look at her, but he told her that he’d manage, which she frowned at (she was used to his mood swings by now, but his quietness and the fact that he wouldn’t look her in the eyes put her on edge). “Did you want to come with me and Trixie to meet her friends at the park or did you want to stay here?” she placed her hand on the bare skin of his forearm and he shivered. 

He didn’t feel like he would be great company, but he nodded because he wanted to be close to her and the spawn. “I’ll… I’ll join you if that’s alright?” he phrased it as a question because they might not want him there.

“Good,” Chloe said with a smile. “Go ahead and get dressed, okay? We’re leaving in a little while.”

He did as she asked, though he struggled a bit with his shoulder (and his back, and his ribs, and he was just hurt all over and there was no comfortable way for him to… he wanted not to feel like he was made of glass but that depended on… well… If his brothers would leave him be then it would stop wouldn’t it?). He was dressed with little time to spare, smiling at the urchin rushing around asking her mother all manner of random questions about which friends were going to be at the park and if after they were done could they “pretty please” get some ice cream. 

Once they were in the car, the urchin telling them what she was going to do while they were at the park, Chloe offered him her hand. He took it and he didn’t want to ever let it go. He tapped his thumb against hers and couldn’t help the tiny smile that played at the corner of his mouth. 

The urchin was off as soon as she saw her friends and Chloe introduced Lucifer to a few of the parents of the children she was playing with. No one commented on the state of Lucifer’s face, which did look better than it had yesterday, and Lucifer assumed that it was because of his ‘mojo’ that no one but the Detective and those close to him even cared at all.

He looked away from the group after a moment, feeling like he was being watched and wanting to make sure that Beatrice was alright. He watched her play with her friends for a while, the games he heard them playing making little sense to him. He didn’t like that it felt like he was being watched, because that meant that the Detective and her offspring might be in danger. He dragged his eyes away from the urchin and look around the park for… well, for something or someone suspicious. He tensed as he saw both Gabriel and Michael staring at him. He needed to get them away from the Detective and her urchin, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. He was frozen and he felt Chloe pull at him, but then… then, Michael stood and started to make his way over to them. Lucifer jerked away from the Detective and stalked toward Michael with a growl (it seemed that Gabriel was hanging back, not wanting to get involved. He looked like he regretted coming here with Michael in the first place). 

Michael smirked and clapped Lucifer on his bad shoulder, and Lucifer had to stand there and not make a sound because he didn’t want to alarm the Detective. “Brother,” Michael said, false cheer and all, “how wonderful to see you!” 

“There are humans here, Mikey,” Lucifer breathed out on a growl, knowing his brother hated the nickname and knowing that he would dig his fingers deeper into his shoulder for it. Lucifer refused to show weakness here, not when he had his… the Detective and her spawn to protect. “Leave.”

Michael smirked again and looked over Lucifer’s shoulder. “I want my blade back, Brother,” he said as Chloe walked up to Lucifer’s side.

“No one’s stopping you from getting it,” Lucifer snarled. He was in more pain than he was letting on, and he had barely noticed Chloe’s presence. “You know where Lux is, don’t you? Or have you lost all your brain cells trying to beat-”

His brother cut him off with a quick blow to the stomach and Lucifer growled in pain. He almost missed Chloe pushing Michael back from him, but he made himself straighten as Chloe started to advance on his brother and threaten him lowly. “I don’t care who the hell you think you are, pal, but if you ever touch him again, I’ll make you pay. Personally,” she was saying, and Lucifer caught her around the waist before she could go any further. 

“Darling, let’s not-” he started. 

“Who does this human think she is?” Michael scowled down at her.

Lucifer was growling and put himself between her and his brother. “You’ll leave her be, Michael.”

“Will I?” his brother smirked and went to move him out of the way, expecting an easy maneuver. 

Lucifer refused to be moved and stalked forward, eyes glowing red, forcing his brother backwards as he went. “You’ll not harm them,” he snarled. 

“Them?” Michael asked, more cautious and frightened than Lucifer had ever seen him. 

“Do whatever it is you please to me,” Lucifer said, towering over Michael, not taking his eyes off of the archangel as he spoke. He didn’t need to take his eyes off of him to know that the Detective was trying to wriggle around to the front of him, to protect him (but he _had_ to protect her, he had to, and he wouldn’t put her in danger). “But if you even look in their direction, I’ll unleash all the powers of hell and myself upon you… Not even Father and all his heavenly armies stand a chance against that.”

Michael backed away slowly, his eyes never left Lucifer’s as he walked to where Gabe was waiting for him. “We’ll see you again, Brother,” Michael said, and Lucifer knew Chloe had heard it, because she finally managed to escape his grasp and stand in front of him again. Before she could say anything, his brothers disappeared, and Lucifer relaxed minutely. 

“What the hell was that?!” she exclaimed. “Why were they even here?” She turned to him and placed a hand on his now aching stomach (and that blow he’d taken to the stomach was really starting to hurt, especially since he hadn’t healed quite yet). “Are you okay?” she asked him gently. She looked up at him, her forehead creased with worry and her hands gentle. He watched her for a moment, the difference between what he was used to and what he was experiencing from the Detective throwing him off. “Lucifer,” she said, bringing her other hand up to his face. 

“Just a little pain, darling,” he told her, giving her a soft smile. She led him over to a bench nearby and made him sit down. She sat as close to him as she could get and fussed over him for a moment, though he knew it wouldn’t really help him (he hadn’t considered the fussing was more for her peace of mind than helping him, but he was inexperienced in these things). 

She put her hand on his cheek and caressed it with the tips of her fingers so lightly that it made him shudder. “I can gather Trix and we could go home, if you want to…” she offered.

“But… the urchin’s playing…” he said slowly. He didn’t understand why they would cut that short for him, why Chloe even offered.

“Lucifer, you being okay is more important than playing at the park, and Trixie will think so too,” she had one hand on his neck and the other was still on his face, caressing him. He didn’t quite know what to do, what he should want, and she was so very close, and his stomach and chest hurt and there was a lot of sound around him and he didn’t know what she wanted him to do. He took a quick breath and shook his head, but he couldn’t make himself pull away from her even though he felt crowded. She pulled away from him suddenly and he felt more like he could breathe. Beatrice’s delighted screams (along with those of her friends’) pulling his focus away from her. “We can go if you want to, Lucifer…” she told him, voice softer than it had been, though he wasn’t sure how that was possible.

“She’s playing,” he managed after a long moment. He couldn’t bring himself to look Chloe in the eye. He didn’t want to ruin the day that they were having, just because he had a run in with his brothers. The urchin deserved to see her friends. 

“She won’t mind, Lucifer,” Chloe said and this time she let her fingers caress his face and fall away. The contact was fleeting, and it made him wish for more, wish for her to keep her hand there. He shook his head and couldn’t make himself look at her. Chloe just sighed out a soft ‘okay’ and sat next to him, one of her hands resting on his forearm. 

They spent less time at the park than he thought they would, both of the Deckers much quieter than they usually were (meaning he recognized that the urchin wasn’t really talking and it was… it made him feel like it was his fault, that she knew that he was the reason she was going home a little earlier than she had planned). The little girl was talking softly, like she was upset about something, but she never said anything about a fight with one of her friends. 

Lucifer spent most of the ride back to the Detective’s in anxious silence. He was worried that he was the cause of the little girl’s silence (he couldn’t have known that she had seen his brother hit him, that her friends had to hold her back from running towards him and defending him with all of her strength). He was more than sure that silence in the car was his fault. 

Chloe placed a hand on his arm, and he jumped but she didn’t pull away and he sighed. She didn’t say a word, but she left her hand there and he let himself relax as her fingers caressed him gently. Lucifer let out a long breath and tentatively covered her hand with his. He wanted to have her in his arms, wanted to hold her and bury his face in her hair and stay there forever. He listed towards her and closed his eyes. All he wanted was to be somewhere quiet with the Detective and her spawn (because they were a package deal and he was becoming increasingly fond of the urchin the more time he spent with her).

When they parked, he watched as the urchin got out of the car and then she stomped up to the front door and waited by it moodily until her mother unlocked it. Lucifer was more than sure that she was upset with him, and he slinked into the living room tentatively. He wanted to make it so that she wasn’t angry with him, wanted to let the girl know that it was… Well, he didn’t know what to do, but he wanted her to know that it was alright to be angry with him, that most people were most of the time (his mother had been, Maze always was, Daniel used to be, and he was very sure Pierce was almost constantly). Chloe told him to sit on the couch and relax, that she would get him some ice for his fresh bruises. She was very insistent that he rest as much as he could and kept muttering about aggravating the broken bones he’d already had. He spent some time on the couch as the Detective puttered around him, but soon the spawn made her way onto the couch and stared at him with a frown. It wasn’t an angry frown, and Lucifer couldn’t really tell what kind of frown it was. 

The little girl was quiet for the longest time, and then she sighed at him. “Was that your brother at the park?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Lucifer replied, because he was never one to lie and he didn’t want the urchin to be even more angry with him.

“He’s mean and I hate him for hitting you and the next time I see him I’m gonna kick him as hard as I can!” she told him. “And I can kick really hard because Maze taught me how!” She was frowning and had her arms crossed and she was very angry (he could tell because he saw that one a lot, but it seemed like she was mad at someone who wasn’t him). He watched her with a confused frown for a moment and his eyes widened when she sighed heavily and snuggled into his side, loosely wrapping her arms around his waist. 

Lucifer didn’t know what to say, so softly, he thanked her and felt as her mother came up to them and carded her hand through his hair and then placed a kiss to her daughter’s head. “Here you go, babe,” Chloe handed him some ice wrapped in a dishcloth. He stared at it for a long moment, and then looked up at her with a confused frown. Chloe sighed and gently took it from his hands. She placed it against his stomach and asked him to hold it there.

He thanked her and jumped as the urchin covered his hand with hers. He didn’t know if he should move his hand, so he kept it there and tried not to stare at her. He tried to let himself relax but he didn’t know what to do with the urchin or her hand or what she was making him feel (and the fact that she was leaning on him and she was quiet and he really was trying not to do anything wrong especially since the child belonged to the Detective and he didn’t know what… he wasn’t sure how he should act…). The Detective walked out of the kitchen (she’d gone to clean the rest of the dishes from breakfast) and over to them with purpose, and Lucifer was sure that Chloe was going to shove him away from her daughter, but she stopped in front of him again and her hands were as gentle as they could be when she touched his face. 

Chloe was looking at him, her forehead creased and then she asked quietly if he was in pain. He shook his head, still floored that they would treat him like this, that they would treat him nice and gentle and like they _cared_. She pulled back and asked her daughter what she wanted to do now that they were home. 

Beatrice looked up at him with her big, sad eyes and then cuddled back into his side. “We can watch movies?” the little girl suggested. 

“Great idea, Monkey,” Chloe said. “Which one do you think Lucifer would like the most?” she asked with little smirk. He guessed she was trying to make her daughter smile (and it was his fault that she wasn’t smiling, and he couldn’t understand why they were being so nice to him).

“_Brother Bear_!” Beatrice said, bouncing slightly against him. 

He watched Chloe as she put the movie in and then she squeezed between him and the armrest of the couch. She was leaning against him too, the way her hair smelled relaxing him and the warmth of the both of them beside him making him want to stay where he sitting for the rest of his life. He listened to the movie start, but he was more focused on the energy he was surrounded with. He had never really felt like this before… had never felt like anyone cared before… He was confused and he didn’t really know what to do, but he knew he wanted to stay where he was and never let go. He wanted to keep them with him forever and he knew that he couldn’t… They’d ask him to leave eventually, that was what always happened. 

Lucifer wasn’t really paying attention to the movie, but he paid some attention at some points and he was very interested in the parts of the story he had been paying attention to. He was mostly thinking about how he felt and if his brothers were right and he really was the worst being in the entire universe. And, yes, he had protected the Detective today and he would continue to do so, no matter what his brothers or anyone else thought of him. He would protect her and her spawn because he was theirs (though they didn’t know it and he had told himself when he’d saved the both of them from Malcolm that he would always protect them and he would, even if they didn’t want him to). He lifted the icepack from his ribs and placed it on the table, and the little girl wrapped her arm around his waist almost absentmindedly in the way little kids do. He didn’t quite know what to do with his arm and he spent a few moments with it hovering over the child, but then slowly, he let his arm settle over her shoulder. The Detective was leaning against his hurt shoulder and he would do anything, anything at all to be able to put his arm around her and hold her close. Lucifer didn’t know quite what to do with that, with how he felt, but he knew he wanted to be here with the two of them. 

They sat there on the couch, almost as a pile. Lucifer was in a lot of pain, his ribs hurt, his shoulder was killing him with the way that Chloe was leaning against it, but he had never been more comfortable than he was in this moment. He knew that that had nothing to do with how he was feeling physically and everything to do with who he was with. Beatrice got up when the movie ended and went to go put in another one, jostling him a little bit. He sighed heavily with a wince and watched as Chloe pulled back and bit her lip worriedly. He leaned over and lightly butted her forehead with his. “I’m alright, darling,” he told her softly. 

She nodded against him, but she was still biting her lip. There was nothing that he could think to say to stop her from doing that. He brought a hand up to her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Lucifer,” she sighed. 

“I’ve got a high tolerance for pain, Detective,” he said as gently as he could. 

“I don’t…” she sighed. “Lucifer, I don’t like that you… It shouldn’t be like that for you, babe…”

He was about to respond when Beatrice climbed back onto the couch. “Are you guys having a _moment_? Maze said I was supposed to let you have those, but I put on _Lilo and Stitch_ and it’s my favorite…” she finished, looking at her hands. 

Chloe sighed. “I was just asking Lucifer if he was in pain, baby, but he says he’s okay,” she whispered with a small smile. 

The little girl’s face twisted into a ridiculous, skeptical frown. She looked between the two of them and then she sighed. “Are you two gonna be mushy?” she asked.

“Lucifer and I aren’t gonna be mushy,” Chloe said, trying not to laugh. 

Lucifer looked between the two of them for a long moment as they teased each other (Chloe reached over him and poked Trixie in the ribs so that she giggled and Lucifer felt his lips quirk up at the corners at how happy she sounded, though he didn’t quite understand why). He waited for the two of them to settle and when they did, he felt like he had earlier and he liked it, he liked it a lot. He knew he didn’t deserve it, but he really did like it, he liked it so much more than he should. 

This time when they all settled, Chloe was leaning heavily against him (and his shoulder hurt so very much but she was so soft and she smelled so nice) and the urchin was warm against his side (but she was pressing an elbow against his bruised ribs and that ached just a little, but that… that didn’t matter). He closed his eyes and listened to their breathing and singing and their laughter whenever something funny happened on screen.

Eventually the urchin shifted positions so that she was lying with her head on his thigh. He still had no clue what to do with his hands, not where she was concerned. Chloe hushed him when he started to ask so he rested his hand tentatively against the little girl’s back. Beatrice just sighed and relaxed even more against him which was… he was touched and trying very hard not to panic. The Detective was the only one that had ever treated him like this, like he mattered, and he was feeling just a tad overwhelmed that the child cared for him like she did. He felt guilty for mattering to them like he did… He didn’t deserve the attention or the consideration.

Lucifer lost track of all the movies that they were watching and was shaken from his spiraling thoughts by the Detective getting up and heading into the kitchen. He watched her as she went through the motions of making dinner. He should have offered to make them dinner… He wanted to, but he knew that he couldn’t, not with his arm, but he should have tried… Chloe looked up at him and met his eyes, giving him a smile that he knew he didn’t deserve. He was thinking about getting up and offering his assistance to her, when the little urchin shifted on his lap. He looked down at her and he saw that she was sleeping, and he had been absently rubbing her back. He didn’t want to wake her, so he stayed where he was.

He wasn’t sure how long he spent there, but the Detective came up to him and asked him quietly if he would wake the little urchin. He shook her gently and she pouted at him adorably (according to her mother, surely, and not him at all, he could never think that about any urchin ever, not even this one). “Dinner, urchin,” he said, and it was as soft as he’d ever been with her. She sighed heavily and climbed into his lap, resting her head on his shoulder. The Detective called them both to the dinner table and Lucifer stood with the little girl in his arms, stifling a groan of pain as his ribs and shoulder protested the movement, but his lips quirked up as she giggled at him. 

“Lucifer!” Chloe scolded him. He froze as she came toward him and he was so very scared that this was the moment she treated him like his brothers had been, like his father always had. He gaped at her when all she did was pull the urchin out of his arms. “You’re hurt you shouldn’t be carrying her!” she told him.

“She was tired…” he whispered. He wasn’t looking at her; he was nervous, and he really didn’t want to be. He couldn’t make himself look at her, but he made himself act like he normally would. “She isn’t that heavy, Detective. I could carry her around all day, even like this…”

“Lucifer…” she sighed, setting her daughter in a chair, “that’s not the point, okay? The point is that you need to recover and carrying around children isn’t going to help you do that.”

Lucifer finally looked her in the eyes and saw that she wasn’t really mad at him. He normally would have been more confident and would’ve picked up on that sooner, but it seemed that his brothers being around had tempered his usual confidence. He watched her carefully for a moment, and even though her brow was furrowed, she didn’t seem displeased, just… just worried, perhaps? It was an emotion he was getting more and more used to seeing on her face. “I just thought she’d…” he started. He cut himself off and looked over her shoulder towards the table.

Chloe seemed to soften at that. “It’s okay,” she told him. “I’m just… I don’t want you to hurt yourself, babe, and I…” She paused with a sigh. “I guess I was being a little overprotective. I should just… I’m sorry, I just…”

“You don’t like it when I’m hurt?” he finished for her. She’d been saying that to him ever since she found out that his brothers had been… that his brothers were in town.

“No, I really don’t,” she told him, and then she made him sit down while she served everyone. Lucifer watched the mother and daughter interact. It was nothing like he and his mother had been. His mother had run hot and cold constantly and had only ever been affectionate when she’d wanted something from him. That was something he remembered from the Silver City and it had been true for the time he’d spent with his mother last year as well. When Chloe was with her daughter, she was affectionate and genuine and treated her fairly and… and Lucifer wondered if that’s how it was supposed to be…

He’d never seen anyone but Daniel act fatherly, save for a few of their victim’s relatives, and while Daniel was affectionate, there had been a time that he wasn’t the best father. But he’d never… Daniel had never acted like his Father, had never even hinted at that sort of behavior (and if he had, then, of course, Lucifer would have had to do something about it, but that wasn’t quite the point). The way the Detective spoke about her father was always fond, and sometimes it was sad. He knew she cared deeply for her father, which was something he would never understand, but he knew she did.

Once dinner was over, Lucifer was pulled down onto the couch as Chloe and Beatrice sat on the floor in front of the coffee table and drew various pictures. It reminded him that Beatrice had drawn him something the other week and he’d never looked at it (he would make sure to look at it when he got back to his penthouse and then, as he’d seen her mother do, he’d probably keep it for a while at least (the amount of drawings the Detective had in her desk at work was absurd)). He watched the two of them draw and color and giggle and when they asked for his opinion, he gave them commentary and teasing smirks that made them laugh even more. Eventually, the little urchin was yawning and rubbing at her eyes as she drew, and Lucifer had to stop himself from scooping her into his arms and carrying her into her room because he didn’t want to upset the Detective any more than he already had. Lucifer watched Chloe carry her daughter into her room with a vague detached feeling.

Chloe returned and sat next to him, a little closer than she normally would, and it made Lucifer blink at her a few times and swallow loudly. He’d been having a very strange day; his emotions and reactions were all… they were… It was like he’d been replaced with someone else. He hated being like that, hated not being in control of his reactions and wanted it to stop, but he didn’t know how to do that… 

“Are you okay, Lucifer?” she asked him, placing a hand on his arm and he couldn’t help flinching, which he hated doing, especially with her.

His jaw clenched as he said, “I’ll be alright, Detective…”

She sighed at him and then excused herself, saying that she was going to change into her pajamas. Lucifer waited a few moments before he got up and went to go change into his, thinking that it was going to be like the night before when the Detective went to bed at the same time as the urchin. He wasn’t used to using doors, so he accidentally left it open as he started to take off his shirt. He was peeling it off slowly, trying not to hurt himself when he heard a gasp behind him and whipped around. Chloe was staring at him, a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. “Lucifer…” she whispered as one tear slid down her cheek.

“Detective,” he managed and when he tried to shrug his shirt back on Chloe stepped forwards, shaking her head. He froze and frowned as she came up to him and pulled his shirt off one of his arms, the one his brother had stabbed the shoulder of. 

She was silent for a moment as she stared at his back and then she spoke in a broken whisper. “Your brothers did this to you? All of it?” her voice was rough, and Lucifer wanted her to stop crying like he expected she was. 

“Yes,” he replied softly, ashamed. 

“Is this why there was a sword at your place?” she asked. 

He closed his eyes as he felt the warmth of her hand hovering over one of the larger cuts on his back. “No,” his voice was shaky, and he didn’t know how to make it stop.

She turned him with gentle hands on his waist and her entire face wobbled as she saw his shoulder, the open wound was barely scabbed over. “This is why you couldn’t…?” her voice faded away as her tears seemed to overwhelm her. Lucifer couldn’t make himself look at her and fiddled with the shirt that was still mostly attached to his other arm. She sobbed harshly once, and then she leaned forward and let her forehead rest against his chest, just over his heart. He felt a few of her tears trailing against his skin, and then she pulled away from him. “Do you… I’d like to talk to you; do you want to put your shirt back on?” she asked him, and it was almost like she was being shy because she wasn’t looking him in the eye (she was mentally cataloguing all of the injuries she was seeing and she wanted very badly to write them down and put them in a police report but she knew he wouldn’t want her to).

He nodded and she helped him get his shirt back on, and he heard her breathing hitch every so often as she stood behind him, helping him get his shirt back over his shoulders. He let her button it and he picked up his jacket because it was a piece of his usual armor and he thought perhaps that he would want it but… but this _was_ Chloe and she was… she’d never hurt him and he… he did trust her… 

“You need help putting that on too?” Chloe asked him. Her face was open and patient and there was no judgement in her eyes as she looked up at him.

He looked down at the suit jacket in his hand and then he looked up at her. He shook his head and he dropped it before following her over to the couch. She sat on the couch and patted the seat next to her, and though he was hesitant to sit too close, he still sat. She had made it so that when he sat down, she was on his uninjured side. She waited until he sat and then she leaned her head against his shoulder. 

“I wanted to talk to you about today,” she told him.

“I am sorry, darling,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean for us to leave the park so early…”

“No, Lucifer,” she stroked his arm soothingly. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Trixie came to me and asked if we could go.”

“She… she said she saw,” he paused. “My brothers I mean…”

She shook her head. “Lucifer… it’s okay. She was watching us, it’s a habit of hers… Dan and I would take her to the park and let her play while we fought sometimes…” He nodded but he looked down at his hands and wouldn’t look up at her. “Look, I know that you don’t want to report them, and that’s… that’s your choice and I respect that, but I…” she sniffled, and Lucifer felt terrible for making her cry. “It… you can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?”

“I do know that,” his voice was soft and he wanted to tell her everything, tell her about how it was in the Silver City and the relief he felt when he realized that being in hell meant that he wasn’t ever going to see his brothers ever again. He wanted her to know everything, but he knew that she wouldn’t believe him. “You wouldn’t… you wouldn’t believe me, Chloe, you never do and I…” he let out a ragged sigh. And unbeknownst to him, his flesh had melted away and his Devil face was all that was left. “I’m the Devil… The Prince of Lies, my brothers like to call me… Doesn’t matter that it’s never been true, not to them…” He looked up saw her staring at him. “Detective?” he asked. 

“It’s all true…” she whispered, her hand reaching out towards him and touching his face gently. “You weren’t… You really are the Devil…” 

It took a Lucifer a moment to realize what that meant, that she could… He looked down at his hands and laughed bitterly, seeing the reddened flesh and he knew… he knew his face looked the same… “See the monster now, Detective?” he asked, but he couldn’t make himself look her in the eye.

He flinched as she brushed her fingertips ever so softly against his face again, “I just see you, Lucifer. My partner… There’s no monster here, just you… The only monsters I know about are your brothers, but not you, never you! You’re min- my partner…” She cupped his cheek and pulled his eyes to hers.

Lucifer searched her face intently, wanting to know if she really meant it, really thought he wasn’t a monster. He only found the truth in her eyes, and as his Devil face faded away, he rested his forehead against hers and huffed out a broken, happy laugh. “You would think that, wouldn’t you?” he sighed. 

“Ask any of our friends and they’d say the same thing,” she told him. He huffed another laugh and let her pull back to lay her head on his shoulder. They were quiet for a while, and Chloe was fiddling with the untucked edge of his shirt. “Lucifer… do you… would you like to talk about…” she started but she couldn’t quite finish. 

“My brothers?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Or your… how your dad used to-”

“It was all the same, Detective,” he chuckled bitterly. “They all treated me the same, except dear ol’ Dad never needed a reason, it seemed… Michael and the others all seemed to need justification.” Lucifer sighed. “They tried to hurt my younger sister Azrael, you know… She was always hanging around me, you see. Liked to talk, and I was always willing to listen… But I… I couldn’t let them do that, not to her…”

“You fought them?”

He nodded. “The first time I’d ever done so for the sake of someone else. It was the only time I’d ever won a fight against them…”

“It’s not really a fight, Lucifer, when they hold you down and hurt you…” Chloe whispered (she was remembering a comment Ella had made the first day he’d shown up with his face all bruised, and how Lucifer hadn’t denied it, she was hoping that he would deny it now).

“No, I suppose it isn’t…” he sighed. 

“Michael looked surprised today. That he couldn’t move you out of the way.” She rubbed her cheek against the soft material of his shirt, and Lucifer could tell that she was getting tired. 

Lucifer hummed and rubbed at her upper arm. “I was trying to protect you and the urchin… I’ll not allow him to hurt either of you, you know?”

“I know, Lucifer,” she sighed as she snuggled into him. “You shouldn’t let them hurt you either… I know that you’re a natural protector, but you need to care about yourself too.”

Lucifer sighed but he didn’t look at her. “I don’t want either of them near you again… I barely want Amenadiel around Daniel, but they seem to have become friends and that’s… That’s alright, I suppose, as long as he isn’t hanging around me sprouting his bloody ‘you’re my test from Father’ nonsense. As if Father cared about any of us, least of all, me.”

“Why would Amenadiel think that?” she asked him, her brow furrowing and pulling away to look him in the eyes.

“He got it into his head that since I had my wings back and kept cutting them off, that he had to help me see that they aren’t… aren’t a punishment…”

“You think they are?” 

“They’re a symbol of servitude to my Father, or I always thought, but… I’ve got my Devil face back now, and it was gone before… So, I… I really have no idea what they mean…”

“What do they look like? Your wings?” 

Lucifer smirked and used his most seductive tone, “Well, they are rather large, Detective.”

Chloe huffed out a laugh and lightly hit his chest. “I’m serious, Lucifer…”

“They’re feathery, white monstrosities, darling,” he sighed. 

“Like the ones from the auction?” 

He huffed. “No, they’re… they’re much more awe-inspiring, I suppose you could say…”

“So, they’re even more gorgeous than the ones I saw?” she asked on a yawn.

“Liked those copies, did you?” he chuckled. She nodded. “Well, I’ll show you the real one’s one day…”

“Okay,” she agreed easily. They sat there for a few more moments, Chloe drifting closer to sleep and Lucifer just happy to be holding her. She yawned loudly and Lucifer ushered her up and towards the stairs, but she stopped him. “You need help with your shirt,” she told him, nudging him toward the bathroom. 

“I can manage, darling,” he said, earnestly. She should be resting and not taking care of him.

“I don’t want you to manage, I want you to stop being in pain,” she said firmly, and then promptly hid a yawn behind her hand. He couldn’t help the fond smile he gave her, and he let her help him out of his button up and into the t-shirt he’d left on the bathroom counter. 

Before she helped him into his t-shirt, she paused behind him for a moment. He felt her fingers trace the edge of one the healing lacerations on his back. He didn’t know what to do, so he stood as still as he could and let her touch him. After a long moment, he felt her breath against his back and he gasped as she kissed his back, where her fingers had been. She slipped her arms around him and he cupped a hand over the both of hers as she kissed his back again. “Chloe,” he couldn’t help but gasp. He felt a sigh shudder out of her and she moved her lips to a different part of his back and placed another kiss there. “Chloe,” he whispered, and he was desperate for something, for her to love him like this for the rest of his existence, but he… That couldn’t be what she wanted, could it?

She pulled away slowly and then helped him into his shirt. He gave her a soft smile as she asked if he needed anything else while yawning. He sent her up the stairs with a gentle kiss to her forehead and sighed as she looked back at him to offer a sweet, tired smile. “Goodnight, Lucifer,” she whispered to him.

“Goodnight, Chloe,” he managed at a whisper. He didn’t think that anyone had ever wished him a good anything. He changed into the rest of his pajamas. He settled on the couch and it took him a moment to get comfortable, but it seemed easier than the night before. 

He was woken the next morning by the urchin climbing onto the couch with him. She tried to snuggle close to him, but it seemed his arm was in the way. He blinked his eyes open and when he saw that it was still dark out, he made himself be more alert. “Urchin?” he asked, his voice rough with sleep. 

She shifted against him and asked, her voice so much softer and quieter than he’d ever heard it before, “Can I sleep out here with you?”

“Of course,” he replied, and with a little difficulty, he lifted his arm for her to cuddle under and he was a little unprepared for her to bury her face in his chest and clutch his shirt in her hand. He let her settle and then he let his senses search the area around the apartment. There was nothing amiss, none of his brothers were around, and yet it seemed like the little urchin was scared of something. He tightened his arm around her and asked quietly, “What’s wrong, little urchin?”

“It’s dark in my room and I had a bad dream…” she told him, her voice a little thicker than it usually was. 

He’d done this sort of thing before with both his parents and his older brothers. He had always been told to get out and take care of himself, but he… he hadn’t wanted to at the time, but he’d been made to. He wasn’t sure what exactly he should do, but he knew that he could never do something like that to Chloe’s daughter. He hummed in reply and rubbed her back soothingly. “Better stay here then,” he told her, “I’ve never liked the dark either…”

“Okay…” she whispered, and soon enough she fell back into sleep and he followed closely behind her, his arm wrapped protectively around her so that she could feel safe in a way no one had ever let him feel. 

He was woken next by Chloe as she sat by his hip. He blinked up at her for a moment and sighed as she smiled at him. “You okay with Trix there?” she whispered. 

He looked down at the little girl still fast asleep in his arms. “She said she had a bad dream,” he told her, “and that her room was too dark…” 

Chloe nodded, “That happens sometimes. She usually goes to Maze or me, but I guess she decided she wanted you this time.” His brow furrowed, and his head tilted to the side as much as he was able while lying down, making Chloe smile. “She goes to people who make her feel the safest.” He gaped at her and then looked down at Beatrice in his arms. He glanced back up at the Detective and she was smiling at him like he was precious to her, like he belonged to her. She reached toward his face and touched his cheek gently, and he was very proud of himself for not flinching away from her. “What do you want for breakfast?” she asked him, her hand carding into his hair. 

He let his eyes slide closed and hummed in pleasure as her fingernails scraped gently at his scalp. “You really should let me make breakfast, darling, I am sleeping on your couch… I should make myself useful,” but he couldn’t make himself move, not with her hand in his hair like that.

“No, you should stay right where you are and tell me if you want scrambled eggs and bacon or scrambled eggs and sausages,” she told him gently. 

He thought about it for a moment and then he said, “The urchin likes her eggs with cheese.” 

“I know,” she chuckled at him. “Do you want cheese in your eggs too?” He nodded. “Bacon or sausage?”

He looked away from her, trying not to think that there was a wrong choice, but… he was always asking what other people wanted, and he… he never really got to be the one to choose. Chloe put her hand on his cheek and stroked it with her thumb while she waited. “Sausage?” he asked, and he hated that his voice sounded so hesitant.

Chloe gave him a smile and kissed him on the forehead, “Okay.” And then she got up and walked to the kitchen.

He stared after her, his brow furrowed. No one had ever… that was… was that how people were supposed to… He laid there with the urchin, trying to figure out what had just happened. As soon as the sausage was sizzling in the pan, Beatrice stared to wake. She stretched accidentally slapping him in the face and giggling afterwards. “Sorry, Lucifer,” she told him with a grin and he just sighed grumpily. She stared at him for the longest moment and before he could ask her what she was staring at, she traced his brows and nose with her pointer finger. He just blinked at her when she snuggled against him. “Thanks for letting me sleep with you last night. Sometimes, I get scared all alone in my room,” she muttered to him. “Does that ever happen to you? You said you didn’t like the dark yesterday…” 

“No, I don’t,” his voice was quiet when he replied. “I keep lights on all the time. It’s was very dark in… Where I used to live…”

“So, you don’t get scared when you’re alone?” she asked again. 

“I… I used to, when I was… but no one ever… Not so much anymore,” he sighed.

“Come on, Monkey,” Chloe said from the kitchen. “Breakfast time!”

The little urchin rushed off but not before she placed a quick kiss to his cheek making him grimace. He got to the table shortly after the spawn and when no one made a comment about not wanting sausage for breakfast he made himself push past his worry. Breakfast was as pleasant as it had ever been with the Deckers and then Chloe asked him what he’d like to do after breakfast, he cocked his head at her. Why would she care what he’d like to do? He supposed it was like the ‘sausage or bacon’ debacle and told her that if it was alright with her, he’d just like to be with the two of them.

She smiled at him and then asked Trixie what she’d like to do. Trixie shrugged but after breakfast was done, she wandered off to her room and Lucifer could hear her playing some sort of imaginary game with her toys. Chloe cleared the table and he stayed where he was, just watching her. Usually he would be the one cleaning but the Detective had made it clear that she didn’t want him doing anything until he was healed. He watched her clean the kitchen and hum to herself with a smile. 

She ushered him up from the table and dragged him to the couch, snagging a book he thought was just for show off of the kitchen bar. She had him settle on the couch and laid her head on his shoulder as she began to read. He found himself drifting off and sighed as the warmth of her body permeated his.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we are at the end, my friends, here we are together at last!!! hooboy this was a fic wasn't it?? thanks for going on this journey with me!
> 
> enjoy kiddos!

He woke to the Detective’s ringtone going off on the other side of the room. She left his side before he could whine about it, and he tried not to stretch too much, but he couldn’t help it. His groan of pain was loud enough to catch the Detective’s attention and she walked back over to him while talking to whoever was on the other end. She carded her hand through his hair as she placed a knee on the couch next to him and his eyes closed after a moment, just listening to the cadence of her voice. He heard her sigh heavily as she agreed with whoever was on the phone. She hung up and stared at him for a long moment. 

“Everything alright, darling?” he asked, his hand curling around her thigh at the bend of her knee. 

“Pierce wants me to come in a sign some paperwork,” she sighed. “But you wanted to spend the day with us and…”

Lucifer shook his head, cutting her off. “Duty calls, Detective. Shall I keep an eye on the urchin?”

Chloe gave him a soft smile and then steeled her expression. “No, I think you and Trix should come with me… If I leave without you, who knows how long he’ll try to keep me there. I want to spend the day with you guys too, you know…”

Lucifer couldn’t help the soft smile that took over his face. “We’ll go with you then?” he asked. She nodded and scraped her fingers lightly against his scalp, and he let out a pleased rumble. “He’s Cain, you know… From the bible…” he told her after a long moment.

“Wait, really?” her hand stilled in his hair and he tried not to pout about it. 

He hummed in confirmation and when she didn’t start scratching at his scalp again, he really did pout. “You know I don’t lie, Detective,” he told her. “He’s Cain from the bible and all he desires is to die. He asked me to help him but after… after the bomb, I… I couldn’t keep helping him if it was going to put you in danger like that…”

“The bomb? With the weird sheep lady?” she asked, her voice a bit rough. 

He hummed again. “That was Abel…” he sighed and peeked at her through his lashes.

Chloe shook her head. “Of course, it was,” she sighed heavily. “Come on, get dressed, we have to go.”

He pouted at her, but he managed to get up and head to the bathroom. He knew he didn’t have much time, so he didn’t do much to his hair (leaving it a little curly and he’d expected that that was why Chloe had had her hand in it earlier, and he wanted… well, he wanted her to know that he’d noticed, so he… well, he did try to tame them a little, but not too much…) He put his trousers on and took a deep breath to ready himself for putting on his shirt. Before he could start, there was a knock on the door. “Yes?” he asked suspiciously.

“Do you need help with your shirt?” He heard Chloe ask through the door. 

After a moment’s hesitation, he opened the door and let her into the bathroom. Chloe looked at his bruises and cuts for a long moment and as she helped him slip his arm into his shirtsleeve, he was reminded of the night before, when she had kissed his back. He closed his eyes and tried to forget what it had felt like, because he would only torture himself with it otherwise, but she… she pressed her lips to his shoulder as she helped him the rest of the way into his shirt and then into his suit jacket after he’d finished tucking in his shirt (with her help, of course). She paused a moment to smooth her hands along his shoulders and then rested them against the lapels of his suit. 

“Come on, Trix is waiting for us,” she told him, and then she ushered them into the car. It was all very domestic, and Lucifer was sure that he wouldn’t like it, but… It was like all those weeks ago when he’d been the shoe and he was… he hadn’t wanted to like it, but he had, and he was enjoying it now.

The ride to the precinct was short (for LA, at least) and it was almost like Pierce was waiting for her as she came through the doors. “I expected you thirty minutes ago, Decker,” he said crossing his arms. 

“It takes the Detective about thirty minutes to get here from her home, and you called her forty minutes ago, did you expect us to fly?” Lucifer asked as he followed his Detective through the door with the urchin clinging to his leg (Chloe had been worried that it would put a strain on him, but he assured her that he was strong enough to carry three urchins on his leg and not even break a sweat).

“You brought Lucifer…” Pierce said flatly. 

“And me too!” Beatrice called from somewhere around Lucifer’s knee. (Lucifer didn’t like the angry frown that the other man directed at the urchin…) 

“We were spending the day together,” Lucifer said with a soft smile at Chloe. 

Chloe smiled back at him and then asked if the paperwork was on her desk. It wasn’t and Lucifer frowned along with Chloe. “Then where is it?” she asked. 

“My office,” he replied, and started walking away. Chloe followed him, and quickly gathered all she needed. She met Lucifer and Trixie by her desk, the latter still clinging to Lucifer’s leg. 

Lucifer gave her a smirk and she rolled her eyes at him shaking her head. Lucifer was looking around when he caught sight of Michael and Gabriel walking through the front doors. Lucifer risked a glance in Pierce’s direction. The bastard was smirking at him. “Beatrice, darling, go and sit with your mother,” Lucifer said, his voice more serious than he’d ever used around her. Chloe looked up at him and said his name in askance. “Pierce got Michael and Gabriel here somehow… probably through Amenadiel,” he tried not to growl. He was about to go and confront them, to push them out of the building and keep them there, but he was interrupted.

“Hey, Lucifer!” Ella’s voice rang out and calling attention to his presence, catching his brothers’ attention. “And Lil’ Decker! How’s it hanging!”

Sooner than Lucifer was prepared for his brothers had joined the crowd around him along with Daniel. Everyone but Chloe and Beatrice were talking to them and, and he was as still as he’d ever been. He thought that he would have to try to convince his friends that his brothers were mean and vindictive, when Ella spoke again. “So, you two are Lucifer’s brothers?” she asked pleasantly. 

Michael smirked, “We are. He’s told you about us, has he? All lies, of course. Samael, oh, no, sorry, little brother, Lucifer has never been very truthful about anything in his life!” He looked Ella up and down, “Michael, what’s your name, sweetheart?”

“Ella,” she replied, and Lucifer thought that perhaps she wasn’t as friendly as she usually would be. She hadn’t hugged him like she had him and Amenadiel, so… perhaps…

Michael slid closer to Ella, laying on the charm a little thick. He was getting a little too close for Lucifer’s comfort, but Ella didn’t seem to mind. Michael started talking to the forensic scientist, but Lucifer wasn’t really listening, so he wasn’t sure what he was talking about. He could only assume that Ella was being charmed, though Michael had never been as good as Lucifer at that (but Ella was staring at Michael in a way he’d never seen before and he was… well, he didn’t want to lose his friend).

Ella smiled pleasantly at the archangel for a long moment, but Lucifer could tell something was off about her friendly nature. “Un maldito perro malparido!” she shouted loudly, and then she continued cursing at Michael and Gabriel (but mostly Michael) in Spanish. Lucifer was surprised that she would even come to his defense but here she was, cursing a blue streak in her native language at his brothers for hurting him. Daniel had lifted a brow at her then he had started throwing his own commentary into the mix whenever Ella stopped for a breath and Lucifer was more than a little thrown by the show of support. 

Lucifer looked to Chloe and she was smiling softly at him (behind her, he could see Pierce frowning deeply as he saw that his plan had backfired). Lucifer allowed a small smile at the Detective and watched as Michael stared at everyone around him in shock, like he couldn’t believe that anyone could like Lucifer (and Lucifer couldn’t quite believe it either, but here was the proof…).

“Enough!” Michael yelled, a booming sound that caught the attention of everyone. “I can see that my little brother has tricked all of you. I’ll gladly put him in his place, of course.”

“Michael, I really don’t think we should,” Gabriel said. “It looks like these are his friends and… Well, that was the woman and spawn he was at the park with yesterday…” Gabriel swallowed loudly, and Lucifer’s lips curled into a silent snarl at his brother’s recognition. “We should just leave him be… You couldn’t get past him yesterday an-”

“Silence, Gabriel!” Michael cut him off. “I’ll do as I see fit. Hell needs its king, after all…”

“Is everyone in his family a method actor?” Ella whispered loudly to Chloe, who was hanging back with her daughter, trying her best to keep Beatrice from jumping into what could very quickly become a violent fight.

“Besides,” Michael chuckled, “Little Sammy’s never won a fight in his whole life.”

“I stopped you from hurting Rae-Rae,” Lucifer reminded him with a growl (completely missing Ella’s look of shock at hearing the name). “You were as scared of me then as you were yesterday.”

“I can’t wait to destroy you, Devil,” Michael snarled back, and then he charged at Lucifer, who blocked the punch and maneuvered behind his brother. He pushed him away and stood waiting for Michael’s next attack. 

Lucifer was calm in the face of his brother in a way he’d never been. Usually he was a mess of adrenaline and panic, but the Detective had smiled at him, Miss Lopez had defended him along with Daniel, and the urchin had tried to jump to his defense immediately. There was something about all his friends, these humans, that brought out the protectiveness in him. Lucifer’s fighting style had always been different than all of his brothers’, he was more defensive than offensive, and his brothers had always thought of that as more of a weakness, but he would show Michael that it wasn’t a weakness at all. Lucifer waited, moving slowly in a perfect counter to his brother. 

“You think that protecting these humans makes you strong?” Michael growled, frustrated. He looked over to Lucifer’s left, where Lucifer knew the Detective was standing with her spawn. Michael struck, heading for Chloe and Lucifer rushed to her defense, forgetting that his brother liked to play dirty. Lucifer snarled in pain as he allowed his brother to hit him in the ribs and face. He shook off the attack and was ready for the next one, grabbing his brother’s arm before it could make contact. Michael twisted out of the hold and attacked again, this time, slamming Lucifer to the ground hard and holding him down with a hand on his neck. “It makes you weak! Just like you always have been…” 

“Get away from him!” Lucifer heard and then, to his horror, he saw that Beatrice had escaped her mother’s hold and was pushing ineffectually at Michael. 

Lucifer watched at Michael scoffed and reached up to push her away from him, and before Lucifer knew what he was doing, he was standing between Michael and the urchin with Michael on the ground in front of him. “You will not touch her!” he snarled, and he knew that his eyes had flashed red because his brother paused.

“Trixie, come here, baby,” Chloe called as she came up behind Lucifer, much closer than he liked (but she wasn’t scared because Lucifer was there, and she knew that he would protect her). 

“But he was hurting Lucifer!” Beatrice shouted, trying to break past Lucifer to get to the archangel. 

Lucifer snagged her by the back of the shirt and pulled her to him. He didn’t look away from Michael as he said, “Go with your mother, my darling. Even Maze is no match for him.” He felt Beatrice watching him with wide eyes as she let her mother pick her up and carry her back the little audience that had gathered. 

Lucifer watched his brother, waiting for him to attack, knowing that nothing was going to stop him from winning this now. He was going to make sure that he did. If the little urchin was going to defend him when he was down, he was going to make sure that none of them tried again. Michael was dangerous and his humans were already much to close. Neither of them spoke, but when Michael attacked, Lucifer was ready. He ducked and weaved a few times, and then when Michael tried to hit him in the face, Lucifer dodged and grabbed his arm. 

Lucifer’s grip was tight on Michael’s arm, forcing it behind his back. “I never truly fought you, brother, because unlike you and Father, I don’t enjoy hurting others. I may be the Devil, Michael… but you’re the one that’s evil.” Lucifer managed to push his brother to the ground, kneeling on his back. “I’ve never had people to protect before, you know… You made a mistake today, threatening the Detective and her offspring…” Lucifer practically purred in his ear.

“Look, Lucifer,” Gabriel started, coming forwards, almost like he was afraid to interrupt Lucifer’s wrath. “I’m sorry, brother, I really am… I’ll… I’ll take him with me and make sure he never comes back… I’ll even ask Razzie to make him forget where you are…”

“Razzie would do that?” Lucifer asked, his eyes narrowing. 

Gabriel nodded, while Michael cursed in the background and Lucifer finally had enough and Knocked him out with a swift punch to the side of his head. “Razzie and Azrael always saw a different side of you than the rest of us…” Gabriel looked down at his hands. “I… I never… I didn’t realize that what Father did to you, what He encouraged us to do to you, was wrong until you said…”

Lucifer stood. “I know, Gabriel,” he sighed heavily, feeling so much older than he usually did. “Take him away and ask our sister to make him forget and never return to this part of Earth.”

Gabriel nodded, and with one look back towards Lucifer, he dragged Michael out of the precinct. Lucifer watched them go and looked toward the group in front of him after they disappeared from sight. “What?” Lucifer asked, as they all stared at him.

“Can you show me how to fight like that?” Dan asked immediately, his voice hopeful and excited in that boyish way that he had sometimes. 

“I could certainly try, Daniel,” Lucifer said looking him up and down. “You have the body for it, at least.” And the smile that Lucifer gave him was predatory. He absolutely loved making Daniel squirm.

“I can’t believe that asshole was flirting with me!” Ella said suddenly, loudly, mostly to Chloe who had asked what she’d called Michael in Spanish (Chloe wasn’t fluent, but she knew enough. She didn’t know how to curse, though, and was wondering why Dan had never taught her). “He hurt our Lucifer! As if I would ever go for a bully like that!”

Lucifer tried not to smirk triumphantly, but it was a losing battle, and as he promised Daniel that they could meet up at the detective’s gym, he didn’t mind. 

“You can’t teach Dan until you’re healed!” Chloe shouted from across the room, making her way over to him, practically pushing Ella and Dan out of her way.

Lucifer looked over at her and sighed, “Of course, darling.” She was standing in front of him and he couldn’t help but smile at her (softly, like he had been all morning).

“He hit you really hard,” she told him, putting a hand on his face touching the bridge of his nose lightly. “Is your back okay?” Her eyes were searching his, looking for any sign of pain. 

“Nothing I can’t handle, my dear Detective,” he managed to chuckle at her. “Finish your paperwork, darling. I promised the urchin we’d get ice cream on the way home.” 

Chloe chuckled, “No wonder she was clinging to you like that…” 

Lucifer smirked and followed Chloe back to her desk. Beatrice was sitting there, waiting for the two of them with Ella. She attached herself to Lucifer as soon as she saw him, and Lucifer put a hand on her head through the grimace of pain he let travel across his face. She was hugging him rather tightly, but he didn’t want her to feel badly about caring for him. “Is he really stronger than Maze?” she asked him after a moment. 

“Much stronger,” he told her, stroking her hair. “But he’s gone, and he won’t try to hurt you again.”

She made a face. “It’s not me I’m worried about,” she sighed. Then she looked at her mother and shook her head, “He doesn’t know, does he?”

“That we’re worried about him being hurt and not us?” Chloe asked and when her daughter nodded, she sighed heavily. “I don’t think so, Monkey.”

Lucifer sputtered for a moment and then rolled his eyes. “Do your paperwork, Detective, and then the urchin can have that triple chocolate cone she’s been wanting,” Lucifer grumbled. 

Chloe gave him a fond smile and rolled her eyes. She started working diligently while he distracted the spawn (Daniel helped as she told her father about her day and Lucifer got to watch how a father was supposed to behave, though it was still confusing to him). Ella had wandered up at one point and asked if she could give him a hug, and he had been so surprised that he’d said yes. It was the gentlest hug he’d ever received from her. Pierce was watching them all with a prominent scowl, and Lucifer wondered, exactly why the other man had called his brothers. He was distracted by the little girl latching onto him again, but she hadn’t really wanted his attention, just to lean against him, it seemed. She was talking to Ella, something about science or school, he wasn’t really paying attention, but she was leaning back against his legs and he just let her. It didn’t feel terrible and he had been getting used to the little hellion over the last few days, so he supposed that it wasn’t that bad, having the urchin this close. 

Chloe stood finally, and he stretched lightly groaning at the pull to his ribs and back. Chloe frowned at him and he sighed, “I’m fine, darling,” he said, giving her a gentle smile. 

“I’m just surprised that you haven’t punctured a lung with all the broken ribs you probably have,” she told him, her hand coming to rest on his stomach lightly, like she was trying very hard not to hurt him. He gave her a smile and she pulled at the arm of his suit jacket lightly to get him moving, because he could stand there all day with her casually touching him like that and the urchin warm against his legs.

They piled into the car, Chloe was driving, though Lucifer could move his arm a little better than he could the day before. Chloe drove them to the specialty ice cream shop that was the only shop that carried Trixie’s ultimate favorite flavor (triple chocolate fudge with chocolate, chocolate chip cookie crumbles), and Lucifer, of course, insisted that it was his treat, and Chloe, for once, could not protest. 

The urchin was dancing (or having some type of seizure) around the table near her mother as Lucifer ordered them all ice cream, getting the Detective a chocolate dipped waffle cone because he knew it was her favorite. He brought them their treats and watched Chloe laugh and talk with her daughter about anything the little girl could think of. She had also told him a few things (ridiculous things that barely made any sense, but she was a small human and those were generally ridiculous to begin with), and he’d responded more amused than he thought he would be, making the child laugh harder when he raised a brow at her giggling and happy singing.

The Detective drove them to her place, and he’d only planned to stay for the weekend because he didn’t want to impose and insisted that he would be fine if he went home (but he didn’t want to, he wanted to stay, but he didn’t think that he should). Chloe had been reluctant to let him go, fussing over him as he packed his bag and straightening his suit jacket as he stood by the door. It was almost like she was stalling, like she didn’t want him to leave… He pushed past that because she couldn’t _want_ him to stay, she… she couldn’t want _him_, no one did, and why would they? She placed a kiss on his cheek and the urchin hugged him tightly before he left, and this time Chloe didn’t scold her for hugging him to tightly, just smiled sadly at them and pried her daughter away from him (he’d been resting his hand on her head and trying not to smile, he was just getting used to her grabbiness and was a little sad to leave the two of them).

He took his car back to Lux and got everything settled. He felt alright, a little empty perhaps, and… he felt that leaving the Detective and her spawn had been a mistake, that he was missing something now that he was alone, but… He’d have to get used to that, wouldn’t he? Now that his brothers were gone, he expected that she would be, well… She was going to go back to being mostly annoyed with him as she had been recently. She… she had been growing closer to Pierce, but this week… She’d been much closer to him, and had all but ignored the other man, to the point where Pierce was trying to get her alone with him. Which had been strange, because Pierce had never really shown an interest in the Detective before and Lucifer was still trying to figure that one out. He sat in one of his chairs for hours, just thinking, leaning forwards with a glass of scotch hanging loosely in his fingers. He’d told Lucifer that he’s done research, knew of the effect that the Detective had on him, had even tried it out himself during the FireHawk Ranch case. That alone made Lucifer suspicious, and the thought that Pierce was going to try to use the Detective was… well, it made Lucifer very angry. He picked up his phone and was about to call her, to ask her if he could come back over, tell her that he hadn’t wanted to leave but he thought that he should, and could he talk to her about Pierce. 

“Lucifer!” someone called from his balcony, and he looked up to see Gabriel. He stood, defensive, just in case his brother was going to trick him. “Lucifer, Michael woke up before I could get him to Raziel! I tried to stop him, but I was too late, brother… Brother, he went after that woman you were with at the park! I saw him take her!”

“What!” Lucifer roared, his rage nearly blinding him as he grabbed a handful of his brother’s tunic and shoved him against a pillar. 

“Please, brother! He said something about hurting you in ways you could never imagine! We have to stop him!” Gabriel pleaded. “I tried to follow him, but he was too strong, and he knocked me out…”

Lucifer spun away from his brother so that he didn’t accidentally kill him. Lucifer didn’t like being violent, but when the Detective was in danger, all bets were off, and he tried to calm himself so that he could think properly. He thought about Chloe and how he’d left her and the spawn earlier… “The urchin!” Lucifer growled. “Gabriel, did Michael grab the spawn as well?!” 

“The… the spawn?” Gabriel’s brow furrowed, and he thought deeply. There was a tense, silent moment as Lucifer waited for an answer. “No… he… Only the woman.”

Lucifer snarled at his brother and grabbed his tunic roughly. In an instant his wing were present and through the pain, he flew them to the Detective’s apartment. The living room and the kitchen were destroyed, and Lucifer had to work to keep his composure. “Beatrice!” he called loud enough to be heard through the whole apartment. “It’s Lucifer, darling… Let me know you’re alright… Urchin!” He was trying not to panic and went carefully through the living room lifting the larger broken pieces out of his way. He was about the flip the couch back into its proper position when the door to the little girl’s room slid open the tiniest bit and he saw her peeking through it at him. His shoulders loosened just a tad and he sighed, “Beatrice, darling…” 

She burst out of her room and flew into his arms, her face burrowed in his neck and her tears trailing like rivers against his skin. “Lucifer!” she sobbed, and Lucifer squeezed her tight, not caring about how much it hurt to move his arm or the pain radiating from his back and ribs. 

“It’s alright, darling,” he whispered into her hair. He stood surveying the room, wondering what he could do next. He needed to find Chloe. “Would you like to go see your father, my little urchin?” he asked her gently when she had calmed a little.

“No!” she sobbed, suddenly desperate again, like she had been when he’d first found her. “You said not even Maze was strong enough, but you beat him! I want to stay with you!” She sobbed a few more times. “Please, Lucifer, I want to stay with you…”

“Alright,” he whispered, wiping her tears away, “alright…” He hugged her to him and tried to think of what to do next. There were a few tense moments of the urchin’s quiet sniffling. Gabriel was staring at him, looking worried and confused and Lucifer dismissed him because he wasn’t going to be much help. He thought he could ask Ella, to see if she could help him track the Detective’s phone, and he hoped against hope that she had it on her. He dialed the forensic scientist’s number and waited impatiently for her to answer.

“Hey, Lucifer!” she greeted sounding extremely happy for someone who saw him earlier that day. “What’s up?”

“Are you still at the precinct, Miss Lopez?” Lucifer asked, his voice urgent and clipped. There was a shuffling noise in the background as she answered that she was still there and would be for a while. “Would you mind terribly, if you could track the GPS on the Detective’s phone?” he asked. “It’s rather urgent, my dear.”

“I thought you were with her?” She asked, but he heard computer keys clacking in the background and he didn’t answer, just waited. “Woah,” she whispered to herself. 

“Miss Lopez?” he urged her to continue. 

“She, uh, it says her phone is in Joshua Tree National Park?” she told him, confused. 

Lucifer growled. “Of course, he would take her there,” he said. “Send me the coordinates, my dear?”

“Take her? Lucifer, I-” she started.

“Miss Lopez, this really is quite urgent,” he told her and then after a moment he heard his text tone and sighed. “Thank you, my dear.” And then he hung up and looked at the coordinates and calculated how far and in what direction he would have to fly. He looked at Gabriel and told him to follow him closely. “You might want to have Razzie on standby for when you get back to the Silver City, Gabriel,” Lucifer sighed. He looked down at the little girl who refused to let go of him and smoothed a hand over her hair. “Hold tight, my darling,” he whispered to her, and then he shrugged his wings into being and took off. 

He didn’t check to see if Gabriel was following him, he just knew that he needed to get to the Detective and stop Michael. He didn’t think that Michael would really hurt Chloe, but he didn’t want to risk the chance that it might happen if he took too long fighting him. He flew as fast as he could, the distance closing rapidly as his rage increased. He caught sight of Michael waiting for him, not even looking at the skies, like he thought that Lucifer would be too hurt to even think about using his wings. Of course, Michael didn’t know what Lucifer would do for the Detective. He flew at his brother with as much force as he could manage, and just as he got close enough, he flipped around and kicked Michael in the face as hard as he could. Michael was sent flying about twenty feet away and Lucifer landed between him and Chloe the urchin clinging to him as tight as she could. Michael didn’t get up and as soon as Gabriel grabbed him and flew away, Lucifer turned to Chloe and tried to shake her awake. 

“Chloe, darling, wakey, wakey,” he said as he kneeled next to her, trying to upbeat. He touched her face gently and was rewarded by her groaning at the attention. “Come now, my darling, we need to get home,” he urged. 

“Mommy!” the little urchin said, finally taking her head from his shoulder.

Chloe’s eyes shot open and she tried to sit up, but Lucifer had his hand on her shoulder and was holding her still. “Careful, darling,” he told her gently.

“Lucifer…” she managed groggily. 

“You’re not hurt, are you, darling?” he asked, finally setting the child down next to him. 

Chloe groaned and shook her head gently, then grimaced. “I think I hit my head…”

Lucifer tutted and reached back to his wing. He pulled a feather from it and set it against her head, and then he ignored the gasp from his two humans from the bright light that radiated from the feather. He laughed a little at their amazed expression, “Alright now?” 

Chloe nodded slowly staring behind him at his wings. “Wow…” she breathed at him. 

“Let’s get you back to LA before Miss Lopez sends out the park rangers, or whatever it is they’re called” he sighed. He stood, pulling Chloe up with him. “Grab the urchin,” he urged her, and once she had Trixie in her arms, he scooped the both of them into his. He didn’t bother to ask if either of them were ready, and hid his laughter as they both squealed at takeoff. He would have preferred to drive them home, but there wasn’t a car around, and he hadn’t wanted Miss Lopez to worry. Lucifer flew as fast as he could without putting too much of a strain on his humans. He heard the child tell her mother that flying was “the coolest thing ever!” and he couldn’t help but chuckle. 

His first instinct was to bring them to the penthouse, but he knew that they would probably need some things from their house first, considering the state it had been left in. He landed them at the front door of their apartment and walked in behind them, still feeling more than a little protective of them both (the child had been clinging to him and steadily soaking his shoulder and neck with her tears and for some reason he was finding it difficult to let them out of his sight). The danger had passed rather quickly, and he had a terrible lingering feeling that something bad was going to happen. He knew that it wasn’t true, that the danger really had passed, and without him having to say anything, Chloe told Trixie to pack a bag and that they were going to stay at his penthouse, if that was okay with him. It was, of course, he didn’t know why she thought she had to ask and told her so. She stepped close and placed a hand on his cheek, caressing it with her thumb and stared at him for a while, her eyes tender. After a long moment he urged her to go pack a bag. 

Lucifer flew them to his penthouse, but he couldn’t make himself relax. He sighed as he paced around the living room, absently growling to himself as he fidgeted with anything that he could get his hands on. 

“Lucifer,” Chloe said softly, bringing his attention to her immediately. She held a hand out to him and pulled him until she could push him down on the couch. Beatrice immediately climbed onto his lap and Chloe leaned into his side. And all of a sudden, Lucifer found it much easier to relax. 

After a long moment, a very long moment, he sighed and asked them what they would like for dinner. He was reluctant to get up, but he wanted to take care of them like Chloe had taken care of him over the last few days. 

“We can just order something,” Chloe suggested. He paused at the thought of a stranger being near them but pushed that paranoia away. He allowed them to pick what they wanted to eat and once the food was delivered, he was able to relax properly as they all ate their fill. Lucifer was listening to the child tell him about what she was supposed to do in school tomorrow when Chloe’s phone started to ring. She answered, standing from the couch and pacing. 

“Is that Miss Lopez, darling?” he asked quietly. 

She nodded with a furrowed brow and continued talking to Ella about why her phone had been in Jonah Tree Park and why Lucifer had been so intent on tracking it. “You know, Ella, I don’t think I can really explain it,” she settled on after a moment of floundering. She glared at Lucifer as he smirked. The urchin was covering her mouth trying not to giggle at them, he suspected, though he had no idea what could be so funny. 

He turned his attention to the child and she grinned at him and then she yawned in his face, which he was sure should be illegal, but Chloe had been watching and she hadn’t said anything about it to the spawn so he let it go with a suspicious glare as she started climbing on him again. 

“Monkey, don’t hurt him, okay?” Chloe said, bringing the phone away from her face for a moment.

“But he’s really strong!” the little girl said, “and he flew us to the desert and back even though you said his back was hurt a lot!”

Chloe blinked at the both of them for a moment and then she told Ella that she had to go, and that she would see her tomorrow at work completely ignoring the questions about flying that the scientist was asking her. Lucifer let the child stand on his knees, holding her hand so that she was steady. She grinned down at him as she towered above him and teased him about being taller than him which he thought was amusing for a very different reason than he suspected that she did. Her mother plucked her off of his knees and the little girl pouted as she was set on the couch next to him. “Lucifer,” Chloe said, and his eyes snapped to hers before looking away when he saw the fierce emotion in her eyes. “Lucifer,” she said, much gentler than she had before, and her hand on his face brought his eyes to hers. “Did you hurt yourself by flying us around?” she asked him as she stroked his face.

Lucifer wanted to tell her that he was fine, that he wasn’t hurt, but he was more than sure that he had bled all over his shirt, which was hidden under his suit jacket. He wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to worry, but then she would definitely start to worry… It was the same with anything he said, but he couldn’t quite stop himself from telling her, “It’s nothing I can’t handle, darling.”

“Lucifer,” she sighed. 

“Really, Detective, I’m not…” he paused, trying to figure out what to say. “It’s already stopped hurting, love.”

“So, you did hurt yourself…” she sighed again and then she bent down rested her forehead against his.

“Darling…” he started, but he didn’t know what he was going to say, so he stalled there. 

“Let me see,” she requested, and even as he looked away, he was powerless against her. He would always give her exactly what she wanted. 

He gulped and looked away from her. “But the… the urchin…” he tried not to let his voice waver. 

“She’s helped me when I’ve gotten hurt,” Chloe said. She stroked his jawline and waited for him to look at her. “If you don’t want her to see, we can go in the other room…”

“It’s a bit gnarly, is all, darling,” he told her, a small, self-deprecating smile taking over his face. “I’m not sure it’s something she should see…” 

Chloe sighed and nodded. “Monkey, can you stay here and watch TV?” she asked gently.

Beatrice had been sitting quietly next to Lucifer, watching the two of them, but when her mother turned to her, she looked reluctant to part from the two of them. “I wanna stay with you and Lucifer…” she said softly. “I don’t want them to come back.” 

Lucifer tutted and told her that there was nothing for her to worry about. But she was still scared… “You can come with us, Monkey?” Chloe told her gently. “But we have to be gentle, okay, baby? We’re taking care of Lucifer’s injuries…”

She nodded and then Lucifer, after the Detective admonished him for straining himself, carried the little girl into his bedroom. He sat on the bed with the little girl in his lap, and he let the Detective help him take off his suit jacket. She gasped at him, said his name in a rush of emotion as she saw the absolutely bloody mess that was the back of his shirt. “Mommy?” Beatrice asked, trying to get a good look at what had shocked her mother. 

“Come now, darling,” Lucifer said, coaxing the child away from his shoulder. 

“But-” she began trying to stretch to see what her mother was doing. 

Lucifer hushed her and faced her toward the window. “If all the lights in the city were off, do you know what you’d see?” he asked. She shook her head and Lucifer took a moment while she was distracted to help Chloe help him out of his shirt. “You’d see all the stars I made.”

“You made them?” she asked looking back at him.

He hummed in affirmation. “My father asked me to make them…”

Beatrice frowned, “I thought you said he was mean like your brothers…” Lucifer told her that he had been. “Then why would you make the stars for him?”

“He asked it of me and back then, I thought I had to listen,” he replied. He continued telling her about the stars, how he made them, how proud of them he was, and how the only ones to tell him that they were beautiful were two of his younger sisters, Rae-Rae and Razzie. “They never treated me like the rest of them did. Rae-Rae loved to talk and Razzie… she would just sit there, barely ever spoke, but when she did it was always a secret…” He paused for the longest time. 

“What kind of secrets?” Beatrice asked. 

“All sorts,” he told her. He felt Chloe cleaning him up, presumably with a wet washcloth and warm water. He registered that she’d been doing it since he started talking to the urchin but hadn’t realized exactly what had happened to him as he was distracted. He sighed, “Things about Father, the humans he hadn’t made yet… Once she told me that I was going fall… I didn’t listen, of course… too prideful… And she’d told me what free will was and… the thought was intriguing.”

“Was she right?” the urchin asked. 

“Hmm?” 

“Did you fall?”

“From a great height, my darling…”

“Did it hurt?”

“More than anything…”

“More than your back?”

“Much more.”

She sniffled. “I’m sorry you fell… and I’m sorry it hurt so much…”

“Quite alright, urchin. Nothing you can do about it now.”

“Well, there should be! Your dad is mean!” she crossed her arms and frowned deeply. 

Lucifer huffed out a quick laugh because she looked so much like her mother had when they’d been at the park, or whenever she’d said that she was worried about him. “It was a very long time ago,” he told her, though he appreciated the sentiment. 

Beatrice stared up at him for a moment and he stared back, unwilling to break contact just in case it was a test. Though, he wasn’t sure what kind of test. “Do you know how old the earth is?” she asked him.

“I suppose,” he told her. “But it really started before time did, so perhaps my math would be a little off.”

“There you go,” Chloe interrupted. “You can put another shirt on now.”

“Thank you, Detective,” he said softly. She smiled and grabbed her daughter from him. He turned with a grimace, and saw the urchin watching him over her mother’s shoulder and knew that she had seen his back when he saw her frown. With a heavy sigh, he stood and went to the closet to get a shirt as per the Detective’s request. He was usually shirtless in his penthouse, the odd robe every so often, but he didn’t want to make the Detective and her spawn uncomfortable. He rolled up the sleeves of the shirt he managed to put on and he ran into the Detective at the doorway to his room. “Everything alright, darling?” he asked. 

“No, I was just… I was going to help you with your shirt,” she told him. She was so very close, and her fingers were fiddling with one of his shirt tails. He hadn’t tucked them in because it would hurt his back too much and he was in his home with his Deckers. 

“I told you I could manage, my dear,” he chuckled, and his hands came to rest naturally at her waist. He couldn’t tell if he was keeping her close, or if it had just been an instinctual move on his part, but he didn’t mind the fact that it had brought her a little closer. He relished in it, and he wanted her closer, he always wanted her closer, but he thought that it was something she might not want (though she was getting closer still, and she hadn’t made any objections… so perhaps she wanted him to be close to her).

“I told you, I don’t want you to manage, Lucifer,” she was almost whispering now, her arms winding around his waist and settling low there, like she planned to be there for a while yet… It was… it felt nice, to be wanted even if it was for a short while. “I want you to let me take care of you.” 

“No one wants to take care of the Devil, darling… It’s rotten work…” he murmured into her hair. 

Chloe sighed, but she didn’t pull back as she said, “I want to take care of you. And it’s not to me… not if it’s you…”

Well, there was nothing he could say to that, was there? All he could do, all he wanted to do, was hold her in return, so he did. He heard Chloe hum contentedly and his hand stroked at her back. They stood there for the longest time, just breathing each other in. Lucifer because he had been absolutely terrified that his brother was going to hurt her, and Chloe because she wanted to be close to him, she wanted him to know that she wanted to be around him. 

Sooner than he wanted (because he wanted to hold her forever), she pulled away from him. “Can you handle sitting on the couch, or do you want to lie down?” she asked him, stroking his brow. 

“I’m not broken, Detective,” he told her with a chuckle. 

“I just don’t want you to hurt your back again,” she rolled her eyes at him, but she hadn’t moved away, and she just looked up at him. 

He just led her to the couch and sat down as carefully as he could with a sigh. As soon as Chloe leaned against him, the urchin climbed into his lap and snuggled into him. His breath hitched as she jostled him, but he brushed off Chloe’s concern. “It’s alright, love,” he whispered into her hair, and then he offered the urchin the remote so that she could find something she wanted to watch. Lucifer let himself relax and once he was relaxed, Chloe seemed to relax as well. He waited until she was dozing and then he slipped away to his room to get rid of the bloody shirt. There were a few different suits on the floor as well, from when he wasn’t feeling quite himself, so he cleaned those up as well. There was a crinkling of paper in the pocket of the deep blue suit he’d left on the floor the other day. He sat on the bed and sighed, pulling the folded-up piece of paper out of the pocket. With a soft smile, he remembered that the urchin had given him a picture she’d drawn. He hadn’t looked at it, and he took the time to do so now. He had just unfolded the page when he heard something at the doorway. 

“Why did you get off the couch?” Beatrice asked. She walked over and climbed up onto the bed. She sat as close to him as she could, leaning against him and then looking up at him. 

“I was going make the bed for you and your mother,” he told her. 

“Oh,” the little girl sighed. “What’s that?” she asked pointing at the paper in his hand.

“You drew it for me,” he told her, and then he finally took a look at the paper in his hands. He was shocked when he saw that it was a picture of the three of them holding hands in front a small house, and the words ‘We love you!’ written in her clumsy, childlike handwriting. With a shaky sigh and tears in his eyes he thanked her. 

“You’re welcome!” Trixie grinned, and then she yawned. 

“Bedtime, urchin?” he asked and when she yawned and nodded, rubbing at her eye, he had to chuckle. “You and your mother,” he sighed fondly. “Go and have a cuddle with her, darling.”

“But…” she started and then she looked down at her feet. 

Lucifer raised a brow at her, “Yes?”

“You’re hurt really bad and you shouldn’t be doing a lot of stuff…” she told him. “Mommy said you were supposed to rest.” He opened his mouth to respond, but she barreled over him with determined focus. “You don’t need to make the bed! Mommy said she likes it when stuff smells like you anyway.”

“Did she?” he asked, perking up. 

“Yeah, but don’t tell her I told you that,” she whispered loudly. 

Lucifer took a breath to speak, but he was distracted by the sound of Chloe clearing her throat in the doorway. She was playfully glaring at Beatrice. “You’re in here telling all my secrets, you little weasel?” she asked with a grin which softened when Beatrice yawned again and snuggled closer to him than usual. 

“Not all of them, love,” he told her with a tentative smile. 

Chloe shook her head fondly and then she told the little girl that she had better go change into her pajamas and brush her teeth. She handed Beatrice a bundle of clothes and her toothbrush and shooed her off in the direction of the bathroom. Chloe took her daughter’s place against his side and pressed a kiss to his shoulder before resting her head against it. He had thought that that particular behavior would stop after his brothers had gone, but she was…it hadn’t stopped. “What’s that?” she asked, fingering the paper in his hand. 

“Something the urchin drew for me,” he sighed. He let her take it from his hands and look at it. 

Chloe looked at the picture with a fond smile. “She’s right, you know…”

“Hmm?” he asked, turning his head and staring into her eyes (they were so very blue, and they felt soft as he couldn’t help but fall into them… he never wanted to look away, never wanted her to look away…). 

“We love you, Lucifer,” she told him, and then she stood, cupping the back of his neck as she went and placing the gentlest of kisses on his forehead (and could he feel anymore worshiped? Was it something he could ever deserve? Her care, her dedication? She was the one thing he would give up his existence for, his very being. He would go before his father and asked to be unmade, if, even just for a moment, she would treat him like that for the rest of his time with her…). 

Chloe ushered her daughter into bed when she came out of the bathroom and then she tucked her into bed. The little girl snuggled against the pillow and yawned hugely. “Lucifer, will you play a song on the piano? Mommy says you’re really good at it…” she said. 

Lucifer smirked at her, pleased that the Detective liked his playing. “Any requests?” he asked. When Chloe told him to play something soft and slow, he gave her a playful bow of his head with a perfect smirk attached, just so she would smile and roll her eyes at him. He settled and raised his arms to the keys, his injured shoulder stinging just a little, and then he started to play. He kept playing until Chloe came over to sit next to him on the bench. Absently, he composed her slow walk towards him, not very aware of what he was doing. She sat closer to him then she usually would, then she had in a long time (and he almost gasped as she shifted her knee against his)… 

He kept playing for her, soft and slow, and he tried very hard not to turn his head towards her as she laid her head on his shoulder. She sighed against him. She pulled away from him, and only then, did he stop playing. “Lucifer,” she said softly. 

“Yes, darling?” he asked, just as soft as she had. 

“Are you really okay?” she asked him. 

“I’m on the mead, Detective,” he told her, with a fond smile. He didn’t know how long she would care about him, and he didn’t want to use it all up, especially on this occasion. 

“Not… I mean, because of your brothers being here…” she let herself trail off. “This is something you’d probably prefer to talk to Linda about,” she sighed and looked away from him.

“That’s just Michael, Detective,” he told her with a bitter laugh. “Doing as Father bids, just as he always has.”

“I’m sorry, Lucifer…” she whispered to him, her voice thick. “I’m sorry that I haven’t been there for you enough…”

“Detective?” he asked, concerned and so very soft. 

“I’m sorry that I never believed you… and that we’ve grown apart because of it,” she wouldn’t look at him, and had he any idea that this was what she had been thinking about since she saw the truth, he would have told her it was nonsense long ago. 

“Detective, no…” he started. He turned back to the keys and started playing a random notes, trying not to finish composing the song he’d accidentally started when she walked over to him. He could have, he had a _very_ good memory, and it was tempting, to have something for her, something he’d written… “I’m the one that was keeping it from you, darling, if there’s any fault, it lies with me…”

Chloe shook her head. “It was the both of us, I think…” Lucifer gave her that, with a nod in her direction. “I’m just… I just don’t like seeing you hurt… and these past few weeks… I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to help…”

Lucifer turned and stared at her, gaping. “Chloe,” he practically gasped. “You were doing so much for me… how could you ever…” He let his eyes roam her face, desperately searching it for something, but he didn’t know what it was he was looking for. “No one has ever cared enough about me to do anything like you’ve been,” he admitted softly, and when she put her hand on his arm, he gave her a sad, gentle smile. 

Chloe sniffled a little, “You know, someone caring about you shouldn’t be something new… that should have been…” She shook her head. “I know you’re not human, but I... Your parents should never have… I don’t care that they’re the most powerful beings in the entire universe, they were wrong to treat you like that!”

“I know that, darling,” he told her. His voice was much quieter than it usually was. “I do, it’s just… it’s hard to… no one ever has before,” is all he can say. He knew that he should say something else, but he was… he didn’t know what else he could say.

Chloe nodded and rested her head against his shoulder again. “Well, Trixie and I care about you. And so do Ella, Linda, Maze and Dan,” she told him. 

He could only nod at her and look down at his hands on the keys. After a moment, he closed his eyes and steadied himself. “You said that… that you and the urchin loved me…” he whispered, half hoping that she wouldn’t hear it. 

Chloe nodded, “We do… we have for a while…”

Lucifer opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t find the words. “Chloe,” was all he could manage. 

“You don’t have to say anything,” she told him, her voice was soft and kind like her eyes were whenever they had moments like this.

“The feelings I have for you and your urchin are… I’d do anything for the both of you, darling,” he sighed. He shook his head a little in disbelief. “I know that I’m… that I can be difficult…” 

Chloe sighed and turned toward him. She cupped the back of his head like she had in the bedroom, but this time she just rested her forehead against his. “That’s okay, Lucifer…” she started. 

Lucifer shook his head, “Chloe…” He moved closer to her, putting an arm around her and shifting to place a barely-there kiss to the curve of her cheek. “I do love you, you know… and I… I know that I’m not worthy, I don’t think I ever will be, but I just… I wanted you to know that…” He sighed again and rested his head against hers again. “I know that you probably don’t mean it the way that I do…”

“Lucifer,” she whispered, cutting him off gently with a shake of her head. “I love you too.”

He let a short breath out, a sort of relieved sob, and placed his hand on her face, gazing at her with awe.

“You okay?” she asked him. Her smile and tone were soft and felt like a blessing as he stared at her. 

He nodded and, shyly, he glanced down at her lips and his tongue darted out to wet his own. When he met her eyes again, she was smiling at him like he belonged to her (he did, and he would tell her so one day, but it wasn’t something he could tell her now because he didn’t know if he could find the words). Tentatively, he leaned down skimmed his nose along hers, hoping beyond hope that she would let him kiss her (she would, she wanted him to, wanted it more than she had wanted something in a while). She put her hands on his face and pulled his head down to her, sealing their lips together with as much tenderness as the both of them could muster. Lucifer couldn’t help his gasp, nor could he help falling deeper for her. He was almost shaking with how much he was feeling. 

They spent a long moment like that, just kissing softly, until Chloe started to pull back. He followed until she smiled, breaking their kiss with a soft chuckle. She rubbed her nose against the side of his. She was smiling at him, and he let himself smile back at her. The warmth between them felt like the warmth of the sun through a window in the warmest part of the afternoon. Lucifer reached up and caressed her face, unable to help the awe he knew to be caught up in his gaze. 

She loved him. She loved him and he’d never felt like anyone ever could love him, and here she was… The only thing he could think to say was her name, and even that was more than a little breathless. 

They sat at the piano, heads close together, kissing occasionally, until Chloe was yawning almost non-stop. “Let’s get you into bed, darling,” he whispered into her hair as she leaned her head on his shoulder. 

“You too?” she asked, pouting up at him. 

He couldn’t help kissing her again, that pout of hers tempting him more than free will ever had. “Me too,” he told her, trying very hard not to laugh at her, at how adorable she was. He ushered her into the bathroom so that she could change into her pajamas, and then he tucked her into the bed (where Trixie was star fished almost exactly in the middle of it, and it was a California king, so it made her look so very small). Chloe tried to get out of bed and help him with his shirt, she was still worried about him hurting himself, but he calmed her and went into the bathroom to change into his own pajamas. 

Chloe was asleep when he came back to the bed, as he suspected she might be. He eased in behind her and smiled as she turned towards him in her sleep and tried to burrow into his chest. He breathed in and smiled as he fell asleep. He felt safe here with her. She knew all of him, now, knew of his past and what he was… that he really was the Devil. She loved him, she said that she did, and he hoped that she would for at least a while yet.

The next morning, Lucifer woke early as he usually did, and watched the urchin and her mother for a long moment before he went to go make them all breakfast. He was thinking about what he would have to do today, an appointment with Linda and then the rest of the day with the Detective, if that was what… if she’d like to, that was… He hoped that she would, anyway…

When the Detective and the urchin woke and dressed, he made sure they ate, and when Chloe asked if he was going to be at the precinct later, he told her that he would after his therapy appointment. She smiled shyly at him and after he walked them over to the elevator and was surprised when she went up on her toes and kissed him goodbye (he actually froze and gasped and Chloe smiled at him like she thought he was the most precious being she’d ever come in contact with).

He went to Linda’s office, feeling a little like he was floating, and it took him a little longer than usual to realize that she was talking to him. “My apologies, Doctor,” he said with a soft smile. 

“That’s alright,” Linda started. “How was your week?” 

He could tell by the way that she looked him over that she meant what was happening with his brothers. “Started out absolutely Hellish but I do believe it got better,” he smirked.

“How so?” Linda asked, with a raised brow.

He told her about the fight in the precinct but then paused. He was silent for a long moment and then he smiled softly (even thinking about it, turned him into a smiling loon). “The Detective said she loved me,” he said shyly, looking down at his hands. 

Linda gasped. “She did?!”

“She did,” his voice was awed and disbelieving. “I’d… Michael had kidnapped her, so she and the urchin were at mine, and she… she said it!” He was quiet for a long moment, “She said she loved me and I… I don’t know what I did to deserve it…”

“Lucifer,” Linda sighed. She paused for a long moment. “Do you really think that love is something that has to be deserved?” 

Lucifer opened his mouth to reply but closed it again after a moment. “She saw my face, Linda… She saw it and she didn’t…” He paused for the longest time, and then he looked into his therapist’s eyes and said, more confused than he’d ever felt before, “She told me I wasn’t a monster…”

Linda nodded, “You’re not. You’re a good man, Lucifer…”

Lucifer froze. He’d been called that before by the Detective, but he was… he couldn’t quite believe it. He shook his head and looked away from her, out the window. “I can’t be,” he sighed quietly.

“You are,” Linda told him. “Why don’t you think so?”

Lucifer was silent for a long moment and shook his head. “I… I’m the Devil,” he told her simply. “I never have been, not to anyone…”

“Because your family never considered that you could be a good man?”

“They’ve never called me a ‘good’ anything,” he sighed. “Except for Rae-Rae, of course, she used to call me a good brother…” He paused for a long moment and shook his head. “I wasn’t very good at being a brother, either…”

“You protected her, I thought,” Linda offered. 

“Yes,” he sighed, “but then I left her…” His head hung and he couldn’t quite make himself look at her. There was a long moment of silence, and then he told her, “I left Chloe and Beatrice alone and Michael got to them…”

“It was an honest mistake, Lucifer,” she began.

“No! I’d… they asked me to stay with them…” he broke off with a sigh. “The Detective… Chloe and the urchin had me stay with them over the weekend, and I was supposed to spend the entire day with them, but I… After the fight, I thought that I’d caused them enough trouble and so I left them…”

“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Linda reasoned. 

“How can I be a good man if I can’t protect them?” he asked on a whisper. 

“Did you save them?” 

“Hmm?” 

“You saved Chloe and Trixie, didn’t you?” 

“Of course, I did,” he told her, affronted and alarmed. 

Linda nodded and looked at him pointedly. “That’s something a good man would do…”

He gaped at her. She was… that couldn’t… He felt like she had tricked him, but he found that he couldn’t dispute her point. 

“And how are you feeling now that your brothers are gone?” she asked with a small smile, like she was proud of herself for catching him.

“Better,” he said simply. “I’m still healing, but I’m not as fragile as the Detective would think me to be.” He huffed out a soft laugh, “She keeps telling me to be careful…” When Linda asked him why he thought it was funny he shook his head. “Just unbelievable, Doctor.”

“Why would it be unbelievable?”

“I know she does,” he told her, “That’s not… She keeps saying that she cares for me, but… It is a bit… She doesn’t need to, is all…”

“But she does care,” Linda said, pointedly. “And it’s good to have people care about you. There are more of us than you think there are.” 

Lucifer’s face cleared with surprise and Linda had to usher him out of her office instead of him rushing out. He was driving his corvette today (the Detective had taken her car to the precinct, though he had offered to drive her and the urchin to both school and work) and though his shoulder did pain him, it was easily ignored. He was smiling for the first time in a while as he walked into the precinct. He met Ella at the bottom of the stairs, and spent a few moments talking to her, asking her about the rest of her day and apologizing officially about his brothers, but Michael especially. 

Ella gave him an easy smile and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Lucifer! Siblings, you know?” she shrugged. “I mean, well, yours were a little extreme, no offence!” She held her hands up and made a face.

“None taken, Miss Lopez,” Lucifer managed not to chuckle at her. 

“Aww, buddy!” she grinned. “You’re the sweetest!”

He looked her up and down and gaped at her, “I beg your pardon?”

“Lucifer!” he heard from across the room. He looked over and saw Chloe heading towards him. She had a happy smile on her face, and he felt himself melt. “How was Linda?” she asked him as she came up to him, her face tilted up like she’d had it this morning and he hadn’t known what to do until she had pulled his face down to hers. 

“She’s well, darling,” he told her. And then he leaned down and covered her lips with his gently like he hoped she was waiting for. 

They spent a little more time than they should have kissing gently and ignoring Ella as she squealed at them. When they finally pulled back, Lucifer resting his forehead on hers, he was smiling so widely that he thought his face would split in two. 

“Ready for our next case?” Chloe asked. 

He hummed in response, his hand coming up to rest on her face. He leaned down to kiss her once more, soft and slow, like he couldn’t help it. When he pulled back, he told her he was ready. They walked out of the precinct, side by side. He held the door open for her and she told him that no, he couldn’t drive, but maybe if he behaved, she’d let him turn on the siren. Of course, that had made him roll his eyes (but on the way back to the precinct she _did_ let him turn on the siren).


End file.
